Mount Pleasant Group 2015 ANNUAL REVIEW Table of Contents

Mount Pleasant Group 2015 ANNUAL REVIEW Table of contents

4 President’s message 6 A storied past and a bright future 8 A profile of York Cemetery 9 Engineering innovation at Prospect 10 Celebrating the diversity of life 12 How we die is changing 15 Witnessing cremation 16 Keeping our cemeteries beautiful 18 Memorializing loved ones 19 Hospice and palliative care 20 Directors and senior management 21 Consolidated financial statements 39 Our locations and contact information 42 Site managers

This fifth annual review covers the work of Mount Pleasant Group, the services provided to our customers, and our community support.

Mount Pleasant Group 2015 Annual Review 3 President’s message

t’s sometimes said that if you plot history and change on a graph you’ll see long periods of Iequilibrium, where little changes, interspersed with shorter times of rapid transformation and innovation. Today, the funeral and cemetery businesses are in one People come to us at the of those bursts of change and innovation. This annual review looks at those transformations, what brought most stressful time of their them on and where we think it’s all headed. lives and allow us to look The trends that are driving change are many: urban intensification, the lack of greenspace in our cities, the after the final ceremonies aging baby boomer cohort, the incredible cultural and ethnic diversity of the GTA, the rise of environmental for the most important concerns, technology and social media to name a few. individuals in their lives. Mount Pleasant Group has a singular perspective on how our industry is changing. We have been in the Few things could involve cemetery business for almost two centuries, and in the funeral business for 22 years. a greater level of trust This look back gives us context – it shows us just how than that. profound and important a time we’re in today. It also reinforces our responsibility to our customers and to the communities we operate in. Those responsibilities are many – to anticipate the litter on the grounds and will be rolled out to all our changing needs of our customers so that we can help cemeteries this year. them celebrate the lives of their loved ones in their own We now offer tents, chairs and roadside signage to way; to give everyone who comes to us meaningful help people find the site of the burial service, and once choices in funerals, burials and cremations; and to there, to be able to experience it, rain or shine, standing ensure that our properties serve their full potential or sitting. Our families feel very special and cared for within their communities. utilizing this service at no additional cost. At the root of all of this is our most important We’re also investing heavily in bringing the funeral responsibility – to build trust by providing and cemetery businesses fully into the digital age. meaningful choice. We will soon refresh our website, to allow our staff People come to us at the most stressful time of their to work directly online with families and customers lives and allow us to look after the final ceremonies for in order to give them a much clearer sense of what the most important individuals in their lives. Few things kind of experience they will be able to create for their could involve a greater level of trust than that. loved ones. As with many other service industries, we Over the past year, Mount Pleasant Group has are now able to use the Internet to create new levels worked hard to honour our history and the trust of our of experience online that are matched by the actual customers. We’re also working hard to ensure that we’re experience surrounding a funeral or burial ceremony. staying on top of – and in front of – the innovations At the Mount Pleasant Group we welcome these changes that are transforming our industry. and innovations and we think our customers do too. This year past we upgraded our cremation facilities We hope you enjoy this annual review and our at Mt. Pleasant and Elgin Mills cemeteries. These thoughts on our business. ■ crematoria now use the most environmentally advanced technology in the world. We also opened two new columbarium niche buildings, one at Elgin Mills Cemetery and the other at York Cemetery, reflecting the shifting tastes of consumers towards cremations.

We piloted a new waste-receptacle program at York Glenn McClary, President Cemetery. It has done a wonderful job of reducing Mount Pleasant Group of Companies

4 2015 Annual Review Mount Pleasant Group The funeral and cemetery businesses are in a period of rapid innovation and change. With almost two centuries of experience, Mount Pleasant Group is committed to honouring the past and leading confidently into the future.

The grave of the Right Honourable William Lyon Mackenzie King (1874-1950), Canada’s longest-serving prime minister and perhaps its shrewdest political tactician, at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto.

Mount Pleasant Group 2015 Annual Review 5 A storied past and a bright future The Mount Pleasant Group has deep roots across all than 15,000 families and maintained the graves of over 600,000 GTA communities. In fact, we’re older than the City individuals who have been laid to rest of Toronto. “Forever” informs everything we do and in our 1,200 acres. Nearly all of the cemeteries in ensures we’ll be here to fulfill our perpetual obligations Ontario are owned by religious, and continue to serve the GTA long into the future. municipal or not-for-profit organizations. The Mount Pleasant Group is a not- he history of the Mount Clair near the Village of Deer Park, for-profit organization. This means Pleasant Group goes back and three years later Mount Pleasant we invest all of our revenues in excess Tto the early 19th Century Cemetery opened. of our expenses in our operations to when Toronto was a small Victorian What was originally a 200-acre farm ensure we meet the needs of a Greater capital known as the Town of York. has become one of the most beautiful Toronto area that’s growing so fast, Back then, only Roman Catholics and bucolic cemeteries in Canada. it’s now the fourth largest urban area and Anglicans could be buried in an Mount Pleasant Cemetery is nationally in North America, after Mexico City, “authorized” cemetery. All others had designated for its historic significance New York and Los Angeles. to buried outside the city. and is the final resting place of more Our work has changed dramatically By 1826 this situation was proving than 200,000 Torontonians. over the past two centuries: where intolerable for many families and so a Today, the Mount Pleasant Group it used to be assumed there was new non-sectarian cemetery that would owns and operates 10 cemeteries, 14 one right way to hold a burial accommodate families, no matter what mausoleums and four crematoriums. service or funeral, today we offer an their religion, was opened in the far Five of our cemeteries provide funeral extraordinary array of ways to mourn, outskirts of the City. services at on-site Visitation Centres memorialize and celebrate the life of Potters Field was created at what and we operate three other stand- a loved one. We take pride in catering is now the north-west corner of alone funeral service locations in to the beliefs and traditions of scores Bloor and Yonge. As the population Toronto, Mississauga and Pickering. of different faiths and cultures, all expanded north, Potters Field was Our operations stretch from Brampton the while acknowledging the equally relocated to Toronto Necropolis east to Oshawa and mid-town Toronto remarkable change in attitudes towards in Cabbagetown. But demand for north to Richmond Hill. death from one generation to the next. cemetery lands continued to grow We have 300 full-time and 200 Despite all of these changes, or with the population, so more land seasonal employees. This past year rather because of them, our guiding was acquired north of Yonge and St. our staff cared for the needs of more principles will never change: to

Thornton cemeteries crematoria 1984 (Oshawa) funeral centres muddy york greater toronto area Toronto Crematorium opens Mount Pleasant Mount Pleasant Group The Simple Alternative 1933 in the Toronto Necropolis 1973 (Toronto) 1989 creates The Simple 1996 (Mississauga) Mount Pleasant and Elgin York General Burying Grounds, Beechwood Meadowvale Duffin Meadows (Ontario’s first crematorium) 2014 Alternative Funeral Centres 1826 (Toronto's first non-denomina- 1965 (Vaughan) 1981 (Brampton) 1993 (Pickering) Mills Crematoria introduce state-of-the-art emissions tional cemetery) opens Potters Prospect Meadowvale The Simple Alternative The Simple Alternative 1967 1981 free crematorium equipment 1994 2001 Field at what is now the corner Elgin Mills Thornton (Toronto) (Brampton) (North York) (Pickering) (first in North America) of Yonge and Bloor Streets. 1979 (Richmond Hill) 1984 (Oshawa) toronto legislation gardens of remembrance visitation centres Prospect Cemetery York Cemetery 1855 Toronto Necropolis 1890 1948 The provincial government Mount Pleasant introduces the first Pine Hills VC Elgin Mills VC Meadowvale (Cabbagetown) opens on St. Clair West, opens on the 1955 passes legislation requiring all 1999 Garden of Remembrance within the GTA 1998 (Scarborough) 2000 (Richmond Hill) 2010 VC (Brampton) in what is now Toronto’s former Shepard cemeteries to create a “Care (a cemetery within a cemetery – designed “Little Italy” community. Farm in North York and Maintenance fund”. Mount specifically for cremated remains to serve Mount Pleasant Pleasant Group’s fund was the growing demand for cremation York VC Mount Pleasant 1876 (Toronto) Pine Hills 2000 2009 created in the 1890s. disposition options) (North York) VC (Toronto) 1928 (Scarborough)

6 2015 Annual Review Mount Pleasant Group provide meaningful choice to meet a contribution rate to the Care and find themselves in our cemeteries; the cemetery, cremation and funeral Maintenance Fund that is the highest and for the people who live in the needs of our customers; to use care of any jurisdiction in Canada and communities close to our cemeteries. and compassion to help families at a the United States. Here, 40% of all Their size and diversity deserves a time of great need and turmoil; and to monies received from the cost of a special kind of respect. maintain our grounds as oases of quiet grave is transferred to the protected You’ll read often in this report that and tranquility in a fast-growing and Care and Maintenance Fund, which Toronto is one of the most diverse hectic metropolis. is administered by a trustee on behalf communities in the world. That But our most cherished principle is of the cemetery operator. For the diversity has profound implications to fulfill the fundamental obligations purchase of mausoleum crypts and for all cemetery and funeral of being in the “perpetuity” business. cremation niches, the percentage of companies in the GTA. While many companies would like funds transferred into the Fund is For us, it means that the range to operate forever, everything we do 20% and 15% respectively. Ontario of services we provide must be is with that in mind. Indeed, for the cemeteries can never withdraw extraordinarily diverse. In fact, Mount Pleasant Group, “forever” is principal from the Fund, only Mount Pleasant has been able to the foundation of everything we do. interest, which is used to maintain grow and prosper precisely because For two centuries, we have stayed all graves in perpetuity. we choose to stay ahead of the social, true to our obligation to care for our We endorse the Ontario demographic and technological cemeteries in perpetuity. Government’s governing Regulations changes that impact our city and our In fact, it was during the 1890s, and they have our full support for industry. That choice means that almost 70 years before the Ontario creating such a high bar. we have pioneered many “firsts” in government enshrined it in law, that On March 31, 2015 our Perpetual the cemetery industry, from the first our predecessors not only recognized Care Trust Fund held $385 million crematorium, to the first Veterans the need for perpetual fiscal in assets, which results in the highest sections, to the first Gardens of responsibility, but created Canada’s balance per developed acre of any Remembrance, to the first visitation first irrevocable fund to provide cemetery in North America. centres within cemeteries so that ongoing general care and maintenance Why do we focus so intently on families can have funerals and burials of our cemetery properties. “forever”? in the same location. Today, provincial regulations Why are our grounds so consistently So welcome to a company whose mandate that a portion of the cost of clean and bucolic? commitment to diversity, innovation all interment rights must be committed Respect. and customer service keep us ahead in to a Care and Maintenance Fund. Respect for the deceased; for one of the fastest-changing markets The Ontario Government has set their families; for the people who in the world. ■

Mount Pleasant Group 2015 Annual Review 7 A profile of York Cemetery

t seemed like folly when the Toronto General Burying IGrounds, now the Mount Pleasant Group, bought the 203 acre Shepard farm near Yonge and Sheppard streets in 1916. No one could quite imagine the need for a cemetery that far north of Toronto. In fact, no one could imagine the city ever stretching that far north at all. In one sense, the naysayers were right. It took over 30 years for a cemetery to open on the property in 1948. But soon after that, the pressures of being part of a growing York Cemetery, North York, ON suburban community started to be felt. Between 1949 and 1958, five parcels of land totaling 12 acres were Population growth is changing how we relate to the sold to the municipality so they could land and transforming many cemeteries into valued create Senlac and then Beecroft Roads to facilitate surrounding community greenspaces with multiple uses. York Cemetery’s development. And nine years later we 100-year journey from remote farmland to the center sold 19 acres of land fronting on Yonge Street to the City of North York. of a bustling urban hub is just one example. York Cemetery’s story is not that unusual. Growth in the Greater Toronto Area is transforming how Jeff Dennis, Mount Pleasant Group’s Beecroft Road was leased to the city those of us who live here relate to the Director of Development, says: “In to allow the creation of a community land. The GTA has no room to expand some locations we’ve created walking lawn bowling club. The house outwards, so our growth must be paths with separate, smaller entrances once owned by Joseph Shepard’s accommodated within the land we’ve to existing pathways outside the son, Michael, houses the cemetery got. This means building up and filling cemetery. We make it easy for people office and its exterior is designated in, or what is called densification. to enjoy our cemeteries.” as historically and architecturally Many of Toronto’s more than 200 Today, a century after purchasing significant by the North York cemeteries are increasingly viewed as the Shepard farm, York Cemetery sits historical Board. public parkland and used by a wide in the middle of a bustling North York Cemetery – once so far north array of people and communities. York. The frontage that was sold no one could imagine ever developing Many of our cemeteries are used in 1967 now houses a Performing it, left fallow for 30 years after it was for walking, bicycling, jogging, Arts Centre, the Toronto Board of bought and then an out of the way bird watching, and arboretum and Education, the North York Civic pastoral cemetery for decades more architectural studies. When the gates Centre, and Mel Lastman Square, – now serves as critically important open each morning, the public is one of the busiest public places in and valued greenspace in a dense and more than welcome to come in. As the GTA. Cemetery land fronting on rapidly-growing urban center. ■

8 2015 Annual Review Mount Pleasant Group Engineering innovation at Prospect

Artist’s rendering of the completed Prospect mausoleum.

Prospect Cemetery on St. Clair Avenue West is one of Toronto’s oldest cemeteries. It is located in the heart of “Little Italy” and is an important part of this established community. When Prospect mausoleum was approaching capacity, a choice had to be made: force residents to choose entombment outside of the community or, find a way to increase the capacity of the mausoleum.

ount Pleasant Group chose to transform the Mexisting mausoleum by “building up” to add capacity above the existing structure. This is a technically complicated project; the existing mausoleum was designed with outdoor courtyards which created challenges during our cold winter months. The mausoleum features many terraces and levels and is currently being transformed into a more comfortable, primarily indoor mausoleum that will be able to serve the local community for years to come. The project began in 2013 and will be complete in 2016. ■ Prospect mausoleum, with construction underway

Mount Pleasant Group 2015 Annual Review 9 Celebrating the diversity of life t is often said that the GTA is one of the most Our approach to serving these diverse communities culturally and ethnically diverse cities in the world. never changes. First, we honour and respect the many IWhile this may be true, many of us experience only a different approaches of our customers to death, burial, sliver of this rich mosaic as we go about our daily lives. commemoration and grieving. Second, we do everything Not so for the Mount Pleasant Group. With almost two we can to make it easy for people to memorialize their centuries of experience and operations spanning the full loved ones in their own way. This even includes researching breadth of the GTA, we have a unique window into the the many burial traditions of our customers so that we’re many ways that people from different cultures and religious prepared to meet their needs, without being asked. backgrounds celebrate lives lived. Here are some of the ways we celebrate the end of life.

Buddhists, who Hindus believe that all good deeds they make up 85% of do in their lifetime will be rewarded in China’s people, their next life. They prefer cremation and believe death is following the funeral prayer service, family merely the end of and friends proceed to the crematorium the body we inhabit to witness the cremation. As part of in this life. Mount the tradition, the eldest son now starts Pleasant Group the cremation by turning a “key,” which has employed signals a computer to open the door and Feng Shui masters the casket automatically begins to move to help design into the crematorium chamber in full view our buildings and of family and friends. special sections in our cemeteries for members of the Chinese community.

The Mount Pleasant Handbook on Burial Rites, which is used to guide our staff in accommodating the practices of different religious and cultural groups, lists burial customs for 94 different groups. These range from Confucians, Roman Catholics, Irvingites and Scientologists, to the Canadian Armed Forces, the Salvation Army, Zoroastrians and Swedenborgians.

10 2015 Annual Review Mount Pleasant Group Virtually all cultures believe in the existence of spiritual beings and an after- life of some form or another. Disposal of the dead tends to be closely tied in with these beliefs.

The York Visitation Centre has brought in specially-made Latvian bowls and candle holders to facilitate the proper Latvian funeral service, and has also created special sections within York Cemetery to accommodate Eastern Orthodox customs and traditions.

In the GTA, cremation now accounts for the majority of funeral services and is predicted to rise to two- thirds by 2020. That trend has created others. Unique Gardens of Remembrance have been created at many of our cemeteries to provide choice for cremated remains burial, entombment, or scattering. Two of our crematorium sites now have ‘witnessing areas’ and environmentally friendly cremation equipment which reduces air emissions by over 99%.

Mount Pleasant Muslims believe there will be a day of In the mid-1820s when Mount Group’s staff judgement when all humans will be divided Pleasant Group began, the vast is as diverse between the eternal destinations of Heaven majority of the Town of York’s as the market and Hell. Muslims also favour burial as soon population was Protestant and they serve. They as possible after death and forbid cremation. Roman Catholic. Today, Protestants speak many For nearly 50 years, Mount Pleasant Group make up 12% of the GTA population, languages and has worked with local Muslim congregations while Catholics make up 28%. represent many to custom-design Muslim burial grounds so different faiths the graves face Mecca. and nationalities.

Mount Pleasant Group 2015 Annual Review 11 How we die is changing BY SANDRA MARTIN Technology, the aging of the baby boomers, medical advances and the evolving role of religion are having a powerful impact on how we think about death and dying. Award-winning journalist and author Sandra Martin explains.

ot so long ago, in the noisy hospitals. They want a different Victorian era death was a scenario: soft music, gentle lights, Ntaboo conversational topic. swaddled in love as friends and We knew it occurred, some of us family usher them from this world found a prurient pleasure in hearing For millennia, into whatever lies beyond. Choice gruesome details, but we didn’t want medicine was about how they die is the final to talk about the prospect of our own campaign for a generation which demise – certainly not in public. That largely a “caring” fought for reproductive rights, sexual attitude is changing as the baby boom equality and lobbied for protections generation verges on its allotment of vocation but that against racial, gender and religious three score years and ten. preoccupation discrimination. Shrouding death in layers of black A decline in traditional religious bunting isn’t good enough for the was eclipsed in values, including the belief that largest and most activist cohort ever. suffering in this lifetime will be Reared on choice and autonomy, the 20th century rewarded in heaven, the advent of boomers are radically restructuring by an emphasis palliative care, the growing realization the landscape of death, not only – by doctors and patients – that caring for themselves, but for the children on “curing,” is essential, particularly when curing coming up behind them. They know isn’t possible, along with social media’s that you only get one chance at ability to share ideas, attitudes and death; there are no practice rounds, These “magic bullets,” contends personal experiences are overhauling no opportunity to second guess. For Duffin, helped patients alter their our squeamishness about a universal them, the generation that claimed “expectations” from comfort to cure life experience. back childbirth from the oblivion and inspired doctors to specialize We like to fantasize that sometime in of medicated technology, having and to “believe that their main task the distant future we will have a sudden a “good” death is becoming the was ‘saving lives’ – as if lives saved and fatal heart attack on the golf course ultimate in “meaningful” experiences. were not really ‘deaths postponed.” or we will fall asleep after an evening of For millennia, medicine was Consequently, “chronic ailments that delicious food and good conversation largely a “caring” vocation but that refused to resolve became boring, never to wake, but the reality is different. preoccupation was eclipsed in the while care of the dying was neglected.” Death may be as inevitable as taxes, but, 20th century by an emphasis on Nearly 60 years ago, the Swiss-born alas, it is a lot less predictable. That’s “curing,” says Queen’s University psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross why we need to make our wishes known medical historian Jacalyn Duffin. The began to bring dying patients to about accepting or refusing medical ancient dictum, “do no harm,” called her seminars on death and dying in interventions that may do more harm upon doctors to alleviate suffering and American medical schools. The students than good by talking to next of kin, close to keep patients comfortable while were shocked and embarrassed. After all friends and family doctors, and spelling working with nature, the deities – or they were training to cure patients not them out in Advance Care Plans. both – to try to effect a cure. There tend to hopeless cases immune to the Nobody knows better than the were no guarantees and no promises. miracles wrought by medical science in Supreme Court of Canada that a The milestones on the trajectory the age of antibiotics. good death doesn’t just happen. The from care to cure were scientific Consequently, boomers far too Supremes, as they are called, spoke breakthroughs such as anaesthesia, often watched their parents or in one elegant and compassionate hormones, vitamins, antibiotics, grandparents die strapped to tubes voice in February, 2015 in a decision radiation and chemotherapy. and beepers in overcrowded and that legalized physician assisted

12 2015 Annual Review Mount Pleasant Group Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto, ON

Mount Pleasant Group 2015 Annual Review 13 process, but were bound by broadcast television has become the place to schedules, time zones, and datelines. announce deaths of celebrities. For All of those warps have gone the way example, I broke the news of writer of the passenger pigeon in today’s Mavis Gallant’s death on February globally connected universe. That’s 18, 2014 by tweeting, “Sad news from why often everybody seems to learn Paris that #Mavis Gallant, the superb the news at the same time and the short story writer has died. Her work world seems to stop, especially for the lives on.” I followed the tweet with death of an icon. a news story for The Globe and Mail Funerals are a time for sharing website, before filing a long online memories – all the more poignant for obituary, which I then condensed and their familiarity – and for revealing refined for the next day’s newspaper. secrets that have been hinted at By then, of course, the Internet had over the years. In the telling, the been flooded with tributes, memories deceased often acquire more nuanced and anecdotes about the Canadian dimensions – a truth I realized with writer who had made Paris her home sorrow at my own mother’s funeral for more than 60 years. when a couple of her friends, bearing While it is now true that “the web is anecdotes like caskets of myrrh, offered for news, the paper is for comment,” me their disparate impressions of the the Internet has also become a woman I thought I knew so well. vehicle for the modern equivalent of Through email, webcam and social a deathbed letter, in which the dying media sites, the internet can, and send posthumous messages to the often does, replicate the traditional living, offering comfort and spiritual gathering of far-flung relatives guidance for grieving family and around the coffin. Indeed, it is not friends from beyond the grave. Within uncommon for funerals and memorial hours of NDP leader Jack Layton’s A family memorial in Mount Pleasant Cemetery services to be simulcast so that out of death from cancer on August 22, town mourners can be there, at least 2011, his family and colleagues sent death for competent adults suffering in a virtual sense. an email to media and supporters intolerably from an irremediable The late American humourist with Layton’s now famous message medical condition. Wisely the Court Art Buchwald brought dying into exhorting Canadians to be “loving, suspended its judgement for a year to the Internet Age on January 17, hopeful, and optimistic.” That allow Parliament time to enact a new 2007, when he announced his own powerful message allowed us all to law, should it so choose, and to give demise on the website of the New creep a little closer to his deathbed medical associations and provincial York Times. “I’m Art Buchwald and and share, at least metaphorically, and territorial regulatory bodies the I just died,” the widely syndicated in what once occurred only behind opportunity to draft new protocols columnists blurted in the opening closed doors. The Internet is helping that balance the Charter rights of shot of a pre-recorded online obituary. to change not only the way we lead doctors and patients. Since then both the famous and our lives, but how we leave them and If dying has changed so has the way those known only to small circles how others remember us. ■ we mourn the dead and celebrate their of family and friends have been lives. There was a time when news of a commemorated on Facebook walls Journalist and author Sandra Martin is often death travelled slowly. A family placed and other social media sites. In a called the Obit Queen of Canada. For over a a mourning wreath on the front way these memorial sites are similar decade, she told the stories of Canadian lives lived in door or draped the porch in black to old-fashioned eulogies in which the Globe and Mail. Her writing has won awards bunting and sent a letter to inform faults are ignored and achievements from the Society of Professional Obituary writers relatives who lived in other parts of are glorified, sometimes to the and her book, Great Canadian Lives: A Cultural the country or overseas. Newspapers, mystification of survivors. History of Modern Canada Through the Art of radio, and television speeded up the Twitter, rather than radio or the Obit, was published to glowing reviews in 2012.

14 2015 Annual Review Mount Pleasant Group Witnessing cremation or a growing number of people witnessing the cremation of a loved one is an important part of the Fgrieving process. For some, there is a wish to see a loved one through the entire journey. For others, their culture may mandate that families witness a cremation or even take part in it, by lighting the funeral pyre. Today, very few crematoriums in Canada are able to accommodate the wishes of those who want to witness the process. Most crematoriums were created in more industrial settings, which are not inviting or comfortable for grieving families. The technology is old, and the surroundings get very hot, requiring cumbersome safety equipment to shield the specialized operators from the heat. The Mount Pleasant Group is at the forefront of transforming the cremation experience in North America. At two of our Cremation Centres, we have created “witnessing rooms,” which can accommodate large gatherings in bright, spacious surroundings. State-of-the- art cremation technology allows the family members to safely and comfortably witness and even take part in seeing the casket enter the cremation retort. This same cremation technology is also the most environmentally advanced in North America, essentially reducing emissions to zero. Mount Pleasant Group is committed to expanding witnessing facilities to all of its Cremation Centres in Mount Pleasant Crematorium, Toronto, ON the future. ■

Elgin Mills Crematorium, Richmond Hill, ON Elgin Mills Crematorium, Richmond Hill, ON

Mount Pleasant Group 2015 Annual Review 15 Keeping our cemeteries beautiful Everyone who visits a cemetery wishes for the same thing: a beautiful, peaceful and well-maintained natural environment. Mount Pleasant Group goes to great lengths to protect the trees, wetlands and plant and animal life on our properties as well as to maintain our decades, and in some cases centuries, old buildings and monuments. And when we plan for the future, it’s always with the utmost respect for our natural spaces. Caring for and improving our properties is one of the most important jobs we do.

Water ionization technology is used within our Gardens of Remembrance water features as a way to naturally reduce algae buildup, keeping streams clear and eliminating the need for chemicals.

Garden of Remembrance, Meadowvale Cemetery, Brampton, ON

We are reducing the number of flowerbeds planted with Annuals and replacing them with Perennial plants. Perennials have many environmental benefits and also provide colour through the spring, summer and fall. Garden of Remembrance, York Cemetery, North York, ON

In 2015, the Mount Pleasant Cemetery entrance gates will be replaced to improve both vehicle and pedestrian safety. The new gates will use Algonquin limestone and other historically appropriate materials and are being designed by the respected landscape architecture firm, Janet Rosenberg & Studio.

Artist rendering of new Mount Pleasant Cemetery gate

16 2015 Annual Review Mount Pleasant Group At York Cemetery, Mount Pleasant Group is working with the city of Toronto to improve the intersection of Beecroft and North York Boulevard. Here the intersection is being realigned with the cemetery entrance and new traffic lights are being installed. At the same time, the York Cemetery gates are being replaced to improve vehicle and pedestrian safety.

Artist rendering of new York Cemetery gate

Mount Pleasant Group is proud of our arboretums and we are one of the few private organizations to employ a full-time arborist. We use sophisticated technology to catalogue all of the trees in our cemeteries, as well as to guide future plantings. We plan and plant on a 20 year cycle to ensure that as mature trees die off, there are new ones to take their place.

Award-winning Camper Down Elm, Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto, ON

Traditional irrigation systems require electricity to operate the timers and controllers. Mount Pleasant Group has taken our irrigation system “off the grid” and reduced our environmental footprint in the process. Our new irrigation systems operate using 9-volt batteries.

A pilot project involving centralized waste stations at York Cemetery has been well-received by visitors, and helped keep the cemetery clean by reducing waste. This successful pilot will be expanded to all of our cemeteries in 2015.

New waste and recycling receptacle Waste collection can be managed by front load trucks at York Cemetery, North York, ON

Mount Pleasant Group 2015 Annual Review 17 Memorializing loved ones s cremation grows in popularity, so too do the niche buildings, or scattering areas. Niches are essentially options for memorializing a loved one following small walled compartments, which are designed to house Acremation. For decades people have buried, cremated remains. Some niches are located outside and are scattered or even kept remains in a decorative urn. granite fronted. Others are inside and are glass fronted, Today, there are many options to choose from within our allowing families to place mementos, photos and other Gardens of Remembrance, mausolea, custom designed personal items inside the niche with the urn. ■

Geothermal and solar powered niche columbarium Glass fronted niches in the Mausoleum of the Heavens at York Cemetery, North York, ON. at Elgin Mills Cemetery, Richmond Hill, ON.

Mount Pleasant Group is continually enhancing our Gardens of Remembrance, creating new customer choices and building new niches throughout our cemetery locations. We expect the popularity of niches to continue to grow as more and more people choose cremation.

Outdoor granite columbarium niche, Pine Hills Cemetery, Scarborough.

18 2015 Annual Review Mount Pleasant Group Hospice and palliative care

Every day, in ways big and small, our staff help families and friends who’ve lost loved ones. When Mount Pleasant decided to focus our community activities we quickly settled on those who travel a similar path to ours. We are proud to support Hospice and Palliative Care organizations across the GTA. Our involvement is both financial and personal, corporate and community- based. Staff at our locations across Toronto give their time to participate in fundraisers, help organize community events and make our facilities available to our partners for meetings and other activities.

Mount Pleasant Group 2015 Annual Review 19 Directors and senior management

MOUNT PLEASANT GROUP OF CEMETERIES BOARD

RICHARD BOXER DIANE CHABOT DAVID CROMBIE THOMAS MICHAEL EDWARDS MARILYN EMERY Finance & Chair Governance & DI GIACOMO Lead Director, Finance & Investment Investment Chair HR Committee Finance & Investment Governance & Committee Committee HR Chair

BRENT HOULDEN GLENN MCCLARY ANNE SADO KEVIN SHEA Finance & Investment Director Finance & Investment Governance & Committee Committee HR Committee

SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM

DIANE CHABOT GLENN MCCLARY ANGIE AQUINO JANET MURRAY GLEN TIMNEY LOUISE MACLEAN CEO Cemetery President Funeral President CFO Vice-President Director HR Corporate Development

RICK COWAN DENNIS MOIR GOWRI THILEEPAN PIM JEFF DENNIS NATHAN JOHNSON Asst. Vice-President Director Property Controller ROM-COLTHOFF Director Director Marketing Management Director Information Development Client Services Technology

CANADIAN MEMORIAL SERVICES BOARD

ANGIE AQUINO WENDY CECIL MARILYN EMERY GLENN MCCLARY Director Director Director Chair

20 2015 Annual Review Mount Pleasant Group Mount Pleasant Group OUR LOCATIONS Our locations

CEMETERIES AND CREMATION CENTRES

1. Beechwood Cemetery 5. Mount Pleasant Cemetery 7241 Jane Street and Cremation Centre 9. Toronto Necropolis Vaughan, ON L4K 1A7 375 Mount Pleasant Road 200 Winchester Street, Tel: 905-669-1827 Toronto, ON M4T 2V8 Toronto, ON M4X 1B7 [email protected] Tel: 416-485-9129 Tel: 416-923-7911 [email protected] [email protected] 2. Duffin Meadows Cemetery 2505 Brock Road North, 6. Pine Hills Cemetery 10. York Cemetery Pickering, ON L1V 2P8 625 Birchmount Road 160 Beecroft Road Tel: 905-427-3385 Scarborough, ON M1K 1R1 North York, ON M2N 5Z5 [email protected] Tel: 416-267-8229 Tel: 416-221-3404 [email protected] [email protected] 3. Elgin Mills Cemetery and Cremation Centre 7. Prospect Cemetery 1591 Elgin Mills Road East 1450 St. Clair Avenue West Richmond Hill, ON L4S 1M9 Toronto, ON M6E 1C6 Tel: 905-737-1720 Tel: 416-651-4040 [email protected] [email protected]

4. Meadowvale Cemetery 8. Thornton Cemetery and Cremation Centre and Cremation Centre 7732 Mavis Road 1200 Thornton Road North Brampton, ON L6Y 5L5 Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4 Tel: 905-451-3716 Tel: 905-579-6787 [email protected] [email protected]

FUNERAL CENTRES

3. Elgin Mills Visitation Centre 6. Pine Hills Visitation Centre 13. The Simple Alternative - Toronto 1591 Elgin Mills Road East 625 Birchmount Road 275 Lesmill Road Richmond Hill, ON L4S 1M9 Scarborough, ON M1K 1R1 Toronto, ON M3B 2V1 Tel: 905-737-1720 Tel: 416-267-8229 Tel: 416-441-1580 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

4. Meadowvale Visitation Centre 11. The Simple Alternative - Mississauga 10. York Visitation Centre 7732 Mavis Road 1535 South Gateway Road 160 Beecroft Road Brampton, ON L6Y 5L5 Mississauga, ON L4W 5J1 North York, ON M2N 5Z5 Tel: 905-451-3716 Tel: 905-602-1580 Tel: 416-221-3404 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

5. Mount Pleasant Visitation Centre 12. The Simple Alternative - Pickering 375 Mount Pleasant Road 1057 Brock Road Toronto, ON M4T 2V8 Pickering, ON L1W 3T7 Tel: 416-485-5572 Tel: 905-686-5589 [email protected] [email protected]

40 2015 Annual Review Mount Pleasant Group AURORA HWY 7&12 HWY

RICHMOND

HWY 400 HWY HILL HWY 404 HWY

VAUGHAN PICKERING HWY 427 3 WHITBY

MARKHAM HWY 410 HWY 407 OSHAWA 1 10 2 AJAX 8 HWY 401 BRAMPTON 12 4 13 5 6 11 7 TORONTO MISSISSAUGA 9

HWY 407

QEW

LAKE ONTARIO OAKVILLE

THIRTEEN PROPERTIES ACCROSS THE GTA

1. Beechwood Cemetery 6. Pine Hills Cemetery 11. The Simple Alternative - Mississauga 2. Duffin Meadows Cemetery 7. Prospect Cemetery 12. The Simple Alternative - Pickering 3. Elgin Mills Cemetery 8. Thornton Cemetery 13. The Simple Alternative - Toronto 4. Meadowvale Cemetery 9. Toronto Necropolis 5. Mount Pleasant Cemetery 10. York Cemetery

Mount Pleasant Group 2015 Annual Review 41 Site managers

CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGEMENT TEAM

ANDRÉ ARNDT NELSON ANITA MAZZARA NEIL O’BRIGHT ANTONIETTA HEATHER WEIR Elgin Mills BOAVENTURA Thornton & Duffin Pine Hills SWEENEY Mount Pleasant & Cemetery York & Meadowvale Meadows Cemeteries Cemetery Prospect & Beechwood Toronto Necropolis Cemeteries Cemeteries

PRE-PLANNING MANAGEMENT TEAM PROPERTY MANAGEMENT TEAM

MIKE PAGANI WADE SHREVE MAX SEO PAUL CANDY LUIS FICHER Central-West District East District North District Elgin Mills Cemetery York Cemetery

FUNERAL MANAGEMENT TEAM

KAREN FORD CHARLIE IRETON Meadowvale Beechwood Cemetery Cemetery

BILL BAXTER PAUL CARTER LINDA LEE TSA Pickering Elgin Mills VC York VC

GARY IRVING PAUL SHEPPARD Prospect Cemetery Thornton & Duffin Meadows Cemeteries WENDY MCCLURE JOHN MORRISON MICHELLE Mount Pleasant VC Meadowvale VC PAUKOVIC TSA Toronto

PETER SUMMERS IAN YOUNG Pine Hills Cemetery Mount Pleasant & Toronto Necropolis DAVID PERRY Pine Hills VC

42 2015 Annual Review Mount Pleasant Group Mount Pleasant Group Suite 500, 65 Overlea Blvd., Toronto, ON M4H 1P1 [email protected] www.mountpleasantgroup.com Phone: 416-696-7866 • Fax: 416-696-0227