Calgary cemeteries are filling up: city official

The City of Calgary runs some beautiful cemeteries, and almost all of them have had decades to become the established final resting places that we see now with mature trees and pathways.

However, with the passage of time, city cemeteries are starting to fill up when it comes to casket plots.

“Queen’s Park is running out of casket burial space, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s not other opportunities,” said Gary Daudlin, the cemeteries management lead for the city.

“There is opportunity in a couple of the cemeteries for cremation, but for the most part, there are no longer casket opportunities.”

He says some people return casket plots to the city, and when that happens, the city makes them available to the public.

Meanwhile, Daudlin says the city has answered the need for more burial space with a new cemetery.

Prairie Sky, located east of Ralph Klein Park off 100 Street SE and 130 Avenue, opened in September 2021, and the name fits as right now. The cemetery is a vast open space, but it does have plenty of plots available for a casket burial.

A sign for Prairie Sky Cemetery east of Ralph Klein Park in southeast Calgary. (Danina Falkenberg, CityNews photo)

Daudlin says it will probably take about ten years for the trees to establish at Prairie Sky.

“If we think about the cemeteries that are obviously established in the city, it’s taken them a long time to get there. I think if we look at Queen’s Park, we think there’s 80 plus years for that cemetery to mature to the point that it is today,” he said.

And the new cemetery does have a new innovative green burial option

“I think this is the next generation. It’s people that are interested and want to be eco-friendly, and so we’ve actually had ten burials in this space already,” Daudlin said.

More information about the new cemetery can be found on the city’s website.