Two investors express a desire to build a crematorium
Discussions are underway at the highest levels of government with two
entrepreneurs of Antiguan descent, who are planning to build a crematorium. The
entrepreneurs are residents of Canada but have plans to return home.
Such an institution will provide grieving families with another option to deal with
the human remains of their departed families.
This comes against the backdrop that each year, about 600 persons die in Antigua
and Barbuda and are usually buried in one of the cemeteries around the island
nation; very few are cremated since that requires shipping the cadavers to another
Caribbean island where that service is available.
“The entrepreneurs, both females, who have won many awards for their funerary
services in Canada, have determined that a market exists for this alternative form
of burial in Antigua and Barbuda. The Attorney General and the Minister of Health
will collaborate to ensure that the appropriate legislation is adopted by the
Parliament,” according to a government source.
The Minister of Works reported that the Public Cemetery at Tomlinson’s is being
prepared with fencing on the south and west of the acreage; a wrought iron fence is
to be placed on the northern perimeter, facing the highway. Roadways and plots
are being prepared according to plan. The new cemetery is expected to look like a
large garden rather than a dreary place full of foreboding.