As of June 13,the Ontario government has relaxed many of the restrictions that were inplace for funerals since the beginning of the pandemic.
Although we are still not back to normal, we are now able to accommodate more friends and family than before.Funerals in Ontario are now able to alow up to 30% capacity for indoor services and up to 50 people for outdoor services.
In order to keep our guests safe and healthy, Cardinal Funeral Homes has implemented the folowing protocols for all visitations and services for the families in our care:
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Due to the large size of our buildings, we are now able to accommodate up to 50 guests for services at our Bathurst location and up to 40 guests at our Annette location. While we can now accommodate more attendees than before, we do request that each person maintain a safe physical distance of at least two metres apart if not in the same household or 10-person "bubble".
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Most churches and places of worship have now re-opened and are able to allow services to take place in their buildings. Each place of worship will have their own capacity restrictions or safety protocols in place.
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When attending our funeral homes for a visitation or service, we will be screening each of our guests before entry to ensure that they are not displaying any symptoms of COVID-19, have not been in close contact with someone who has tested positive or has travelled out of the province in the past 14 days. We ask that anyone answering yes to the questions above kindly not attend the funeral home so as to keep the other guests and our staff safe and healthy.
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Upon entry to the funeral home, each guest will be offered hand sanitizer and a mask if they did not bring their own. We have been mandated by the Bereavement Authority of Ontario to ensure that each person attending a funeral or visitation wear a face covering and we appreciate your understanding of this provincial directive.
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We are also mandated by our regulator to register the name and contact information of each household so that we have an official record of all those that attended a given visitation or service.
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Seating has been set up in our funeral homes to maintain physical distancing.
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Our dedicated team will be cleaning and disinfecting all public areas of the funeral homes on a constant basis so that you can be comfortable supporting your loved ones at this difficult time.
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Our coffee lounges remain closed, we are not offering receptions with food at this time and we kindly ask all guests to refrain from bringing in outside food or drink.
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Once we reach our building capacity, we will have to wait until one or more guests leave before allowing additional people into our building. Due to the current restrictions, we cannot form a line outside of our building so we ask that anyone waiting does so remaining in their own vehicle.
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If you do not feel comfortable coming to our funeral home or are unable to due to being in quarantine, we invite you to support those that have lost a loved one by signing our online condolence book, sending sympathy flowers or making a donation to a charity of your choice.
If you are attending the visitation and service, please remember to sign up for both. Please know that you are able to assist others by signing up those who may be less proficient on a computer. You will need their full name and phone number. Please also feel free to call the funeral home at 416-762-8141 if you would like some assistance. Thank you.
