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The Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act and the ALTO Corridor
A systematic analysis of Ontario’s burial protection framework as it applies to the proposed ALTO High-Speed Rail southern corridor through Eastern Ontario, with reference to cemetery locations in South Frontenac and Rideau Lakes.
This brief identifies 51 documented cemetery locations within 15 kilometres of the approximate ALTO southern corridor centreline through South Frontenac and Rideau Lakes townships — using only two partial-coverage datasets. The actual number of protected burial sites is certainly higher.
ALTO’s disclosed field study programme contains no heritage burial site survey. Eastern Ontario was settled by Loyalist families from 1784 onward. The probability that human remains are present on corridor land never formally recorded is not negligible. It is high.
Ontario’s Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act
The Ontario Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act, 2002 (FBCSA), which came into force July 1, 2012, replaced and consolidated the former Cemeteries Act. It is administered by the Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO). The Act governs four distinct categories of burial land, each carrying different legal protections and procedural obligations.
Registered Cemeteries
Land formally consented by the Registrar and registered against land title. Section 102 prohibits interfering with a registered cemetery. Closing one requires a formal Registrar’s order — the test being whether closure is in the public interest — with full appeal rights to the Licence Appeal Tribunal. Crucially, the cemetery land-use designation survives ownership change and survives expropriation. A Crown corporation acquiring title to land containing a registered cemetery does not thereby acquire the right to develop it: the land remains legally a cemetery and cannot be used for any other purpose until a closure certificate is issued, registered against title, and appeals are exhausted.
Unregistered Cemeteries
Land functioning as a cemetery but not formally registered with the BAO. These carry significantly less procedural protection but remain subject to the Act once human remains are confirmed. Relocation may proceed with minimum notice.
Burial Sites
Land containing human remains that is not a cemetery. Section 94 prohibits disturbing a burial site. Discovery triggers a mandatory investigation process to declare the site as an irregular burial, a burial ground, or an aboriginal peoples’ burial ground — each with different obligations. If the parties cannot agree on a site disposition, the Act requires referral to binding arbitration.
War Graves
The strongest protection. The remains and markers of Canadian or Allied veterans or Commonwealth War Burials cannot be moved without the agreement of Veterans Affairs Canada, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, or prescribed bodies. This is independent of the provincial Act and applies regardless of any federal enabling legislation.
Critical Point: Disinterment — moving human remains from any registered location — requires multiple consents: the interment rights holder, the Registrar, and potentially the courts. Where interment rights holders are deceased (as is typical in pioneer family plots dating from the 1790s–1850s), the Registrar’s consent may be substituted, but this is not automatic and cannot be accelerated by federal legislation or Crown corporation authority.
Two Centuries of Loyalist Settlement
Eastern Ontario was the primary landing zone for United Empire Loyalist settlers from 1784 onward. The counties of Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, Leeds and Grenville, Lanark, and Hastings contain the highest concentrations of pioneer-era settlement in Ontario. Every farm family that arrived between 1784 and 1840 buried its dead on the land it cleared — commonly in small family plots on private agricultural properties, many of which have never been formally registered with any authority.
The Ontario Historical Society and Ontario Genealogical Society have documented over 1,500 unregistered cemeteries across Ontario through a systematic research programme ongoing since 2005. Eastern Ontario counties represent a disproportionate share. The southern ALTO study corridor passes directly through the most densely settled portion of this landscape: South Frontenac Township and the former townships of Bastard and South Burgess, South Crosby, and North Crosby — precisely the townships in which Loyalist settlement was most concentrated after 1784.
Construction of the Rideau Canal (1826–1832) added a further layer: Irish canal workers who died during construction were buried in unmarked graves along the waterway, some never formally recorded. The Rideau Lakes dataset notes that a building permit was stalled as recently as 1989–1991 at one location due to the presence of deceased canal workers, with concerns about contamination from disturbed remains.
A Recent Local Precedent. Between December 1, 1989 and November 30, 1991, a building permit application was stalled due to a cemetery on the site because deceased canal workers were buried there, with concern over disease spread/contamination from disturbed remains. This occurred within the township area now under ALTO study — 35 years ago, for a single building permit. ALTO’s 60-metre corridor through this landscape will be orders of magnitude more extensive.
South Frontenac and Rideau Lakes: The Numbers
The precise ALTO corridor alignment has not been published. Distances are approximate, calculated from a modelled centreline, and indicate proximity risk rather than definitive corridor intersection.
| Cemetery | Township | Approx. Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Harrowsmith Cemetery | South Frontenac | 0.1 km |
| Sydenham Cemetery | South Frontenac | 2.9 km |
| Wilmer Cemetery | South Frontenac | 3.2 km |
| Opinicon Cemetery | South Frontenac | 3.0 km |
| St. Luke’s (Murvale) Cemetery | South Frontenac | 5.5 km |
| St. Patrick’s Cemetery | South Frontenac | 6.9 km |
| Verona Cemetery | South Frontenac | 7.8 km |
| Vanluven Cemetery | South Frontenac | 10.9 km |
| Sandhill Cemetery | South Frontenac | 12.3 km |
| Piccadilly Cemetery | Central Frontenac | 11.6 km |
| Campsell Cemetery | Central Frontenac | 12.5 km |
| St. Edward’s Cemetery | South Frontenac | 12.7 km |
| Latimer Cemetery | South Frontenac | 11.8 km |
| Cemetery | Former Township | Approx. Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Chaffey’s Locks (Parks Canada) | Former S. Crosby | 0.8 km |
| Clear Lake Cemetery | Former S. Crosby | 0.9 km |
| Harlem Community Cemetery | Former Bastard & S. Burgess | 1.2 km |
| Forfar Cemetery | Former Bastard & S. Burgess | 1.7 km |
| Halladay Cemetery | Former S. Crosby | 2.7 km |
| Phillipsville Baptist | Former Bastard & S. Burgess | 2.7 km |
| Old Lillie’s Cemetery | Former Bastard & S. Burgess | 2.9 km |
| The Designated Cemetery (Denny) | Former Bastard & S. Burgess | 2.5 km |
| St. Peter’s Anglican Cemetery | Former Bastard & S. Burgess | 3.2 km |
| Crosby United Church | Former S. Crosby | 3.0 km |
| Sheldon’s Cemetery | Former Bastard & S. Burgess | 3.4 km |
| Emmanuel Burying Ground | Former Bastard & S. Burgess | 3.5 km |
| Holy Japanese Martyrs Cemetery | Former Bastard & S. Burgess | 3.6 km |
| Portland Anglican Cemetery | Former Bastard & S. Burgess | 3.7 km |
| Knowlton Cemetery | Former S. Crosby | 3.9 km |
| Ripley-Sly Cemetery | Former S. Crosby | 4.8 km |
| Polk Family Cemetery | Former Bastard & S. Burgess | 4.7 km |
| St. Columbanus | Former S. Crosby | 5.0 km |
| Newboro United Cemetery | Former N. Newboro & Blair | 5.3 km |
| Tett Cemetery | Former N. Newboro & Blair | 5.8 km |
| Hutchings | Former N. Newboro & Blair | 5.8 km |
| Stevens Cemetery | Former Bastard & S. Burgess | 6.2 km |
| Denault Cemetery | Former Bastard & S. Burgess | 6.1 km |
| Plum Hollow Baptist Cemetery | Former Bastard & S. Burgess | 6.7 km |
| Briar Hill Cemetery | Former S. Crosby | 10.1 km |
| Morton Cemetery | Former S. Crosby | 10.4 km |
| Knox Presbyterian Cemetery | Village of Westport | 10.8 km |
| St Edward Churchyard | Village of Westport | 11.9 km |
| Westport Baptist Cemetery | Village of Westport | 12.0 km |
| Westport United Church Cemetery | Village of Westport | 12.3 km |
| St. Paul’s Anglican Cemetery | Village of Westport | 12.8 km |
| Palmer Cemetery | Former N. Newboro & Blair | 12.1 km |
| Myers Family Cemetery | Former N. Newboro & Blair | 13.7 km |
| Lumbar Family Cemetery | Former S. Elmsley | 10.1 km |
| Lombardy Methodist | Former S. Elmsley | 10.3 km |
| Holy Trinity Anglican Church Cemetery | Former S. Elmsley | 10.1 km |
| Blessed Sacrament Cemetery | Former S. Elmsley | 10.2 km |
| Maple Vale Cemetery | Former S. Elmsley | 12.0 km |
Distance key: ■ Red: under 5 km ■ Gold: 5–10 km ■ Grey: 10–15 km
All distances from approximate corridor centreline. Actual alignment not yet published. Sources: Frontenac County GIS cemetery inventory; Howard E. French, “Rideau Lakes Cemetery Locations,” November 2023.
The Invisible Risk
The datasets above cover only known cemeteries — sites documented, visited, and recorded by genealogical researchers. They do not capture:
- Private family plots established on pioneer land grants, typically marked only with fieldstones, many now overgrown or on cultivated land
- Informal burial sites for labourers, Indigenous peoples, or others who died outside formal church or municipal burial structures
- Canal workers’ graves along the Rideau waterway — Irish labourers who died during construction (1826–1832), some recorded only as “unknown,” buried where they fell
- Indigenous burial sites predating European settlement, which engage separate obligations under the FBCSA’s aboriginal peoples’ burial ground provisions and under the federal duty to consult
Under the FBCSA, any person who discovers human remains in circumstances other than a registered cemetery must immediately notify the Registrar and the local police. Construction activity — blasting, excavation, drainage alteration — is precisely the category of disturbance most likely to encounter undocumented burial sites. An encounter during construction halts work, triggers mandatory investigation, and potentially triggers arbitration. The Rideau canal workers’ graves precedent indicates this risk is not theoretical in this geography.
Crown Authority Does Not Override the FBCSA
ALTO is a federal Crown corporation operating under federal enabling legislation. The FBCSA is provincial legislation. This creates a jurisdictional question that ALTO’s consultation materials do not address.
Bill C-15, Part 5, Division 5 — which drew a public letter of opposition from over 100 legal scholars, human rights experts, and civil society organizations — would allow federal ministers to exempt any person, corporation, or government department from virtually any federal or provincial law. Whether that power could be exercised to exempt ALTO from FBCSA burial protections is untested. But the question should be asked and answered before construction begins, not after human remains are encountered in the corridor.
Even if federal paramountcy arguments were available, they would not resolve the disinterment consent requirements for registered cemeteries: interment rights holders (or their successors) must consent to the removal of remains, and where those rights holders are deceased — as in all pioneer family plots — the Registrar’s substitute consent process takes time and cannot be unilaterally expedited.
War Graves — A Separate Federal Constraint. Eastern Ontario has a high density of WWI and WWII veterans who were buried locally. Their remains cannot be moved without the agreement of Veterans Affairs Canada and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. This is entirely independent of both the FBCSA and the Impact Assessment Act, and cannot be overridden by federal infrastructure legislation.
The Consultation Platform Exchange
On March 3, 2026, the ALTO HSR Citizen Research Initiative submitted GPS coordinate datasets for cemetery locations in Rideau Lakes Township and Frontenac County, requesting they be incorporated into ALTO’s consultation map. The basis for the request: at the Storrington open house, ALTO’s GIS specialist had told a participant that this was possible if coordinates were provided.
ALTO’s formal response:
“It is not possible to import multiple pins at once on the public map during the public consultation process. If you wish, you may submit each pin individually directly on the platform. Alternatively, you can share the file containing all the locations, you are welcome to upload it as part of a written brief.”
This exchange establishes three things. First, it directly contradicts what ALTO’s GIS specialist said in person at the Storrington open house — a documented discrepancy between what ALTO staff told participants and what the formal process allows. Second, the suggestion to enter 38 GPS coordinates individually through the public platform is not a reasonable accommodation; it is a functional exclusion of the data. Third, ALTO has been in possession of the Rideau Lakes cemetery coordinate dataset since March 3, 2026. The cemetery locations do not appear on ALTO’s public consultation map.
The decision not to accommodate structured heritage data submitted by a participant with GPS coordinates, by a consultation platform operated by a Crown corporation with a $3.4 billion budget, was ALTO’s. This policy brief represents the written submission ALTO’s response invited.
No Heritage Burial Survey in the Field Programme
ALTO’s Amended Corporate Plan (Treasury Board, May 2025) lists its Stage 1 Day 1 environmental workstreams: fish surveys, fluvial geomorphology, sound and vibration, surface water quality, and terrestrial ecology including bat, snake, bird, amphibian, and turtle surveys. There is no reference to a heritage burial site survey.
A heritage burial site survey of the corridor study area — identifying registered cemeteries on title, known unregistered cemeteries from OGS/OHS databases, and historically probable locations of pioneer family plots based on settlement patterns and concession lot records — is a standard component of any major infrastructure environmental assessment in Ontario. Its absence from ALTO’s disclosed field study programme is a gap that cannot be remedied after a route is locked in.
Once expropriation proceedings begin and a corridor is confirmed, the options narrow significantly. A registered cemetery discovered post-expropriation requires closure proceedings before the BAO before construction can proceed. An undocumented burial site discovered during construction halts work and triggers unpredictable timelines. Neither outcome is consistent with the accelerated delivery schedule ALTO has publicly committed to.
ALTO’s CEO on public record — CBC Ottawa Morning, March 25, 2026: ALTO CEO Martin Imbleau stated: “I’m not a private project. I’m representing the state. I represent the public interest. So I have to have access to the land to do my studies.”
This framing applies directly to the question of burial site access. The legal framework documented in this brief makes clear that Crown authority does not override the FBCSA. A registered cemetery survives expropriation with its legal status intact. Disinterment requires consent from interment rights holders or the Registrar’s substitute process, neither of which can be accelerated by the assertion of Crown or state authority.
He also confirmed that land acquisition surveys were commencing “this week” as the consultation closed. For properties containing documented or undocumented burial sites — a predictable condition along a corridor settled since the 1780s — the convergence of imminent survey access and legally constrained burial land is a foreseeable conflict that has not been addressed in any ALTO public document. CBC Ottawa Morning, March 25, 2026 →
Five Things ALTO Must Do
Commission and publish a heritage burial site survey before route selection
ALTO should commission a systematic heritage burial site survey using OGS/OHS unregistered cemetery databases; title searches for registered cemeteries within the study band; historical settlement pattern analysis identifying Loyalist-era farm lots where family plots are probable; and field verification of known locations. This survey must be publicly released as part of the consultation record before April 24, 2026, or before any route selection decision is made.
Disclose the legal framework for registered cemetery closure
ALTO should publicly disclose whether any registered cemeteries fall within its study corridor, what the FBCSA closure process would be, and what timeline is anticipated for Registrar’s orders and any appeals. Communities in the corridor are entitled to this information before the consultation closes.
Clarify the interaction of federal legislation with the FBCSA
ALTO should publicly confirm whether it relies on any federal paramountcy argument or Bill C-15 provision to override provincial cemetery protections, and if so, the specific legal basis. Any such claim should be subject to independent legal review before route selection.
Engage Veterans Affairs Canada and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
ALTO should confirm that both bodies have been consulted on the corridor study area, given the density of WWI and WWII veterans buried in Eastern Ontario communities. Documentation of this engagement should be publicly released.
Extend Indigenous burial ground obligations to the full study corridor
ALTO should confirm that its burial site survey program includes systematic assessment for aboriginal peoples’ burial grounds throughout the Eastern Ontario study corridor, independent of and prior to the broader Impact Assessment process.
A Predictable Legal Constraint That Must Be Assessed Before Route Selection
The FBCSA creates a category of legal constraint on the ALTO corridor that has received no public attention in ALTO’s consultation materials. This brief has identified 51 documented cemetery locations within 15 kilometres of the approximate ALTO southern corridor centreline through South Frontenac and Rideau Lakes townships, using only two partial-coverage datasets. The actual number of protected burial sites within the corridor — registered, unregistered, and undocumented — is certainly higher.
Eastern Ontario was settled by Loyalist families from 1784 onward. Every farm that may be expropriated for the ALTO corridor has been in continuous use for more than 200 years. The probability that human remains are present on some of those farms, in locations that have never been formally recorded, is not negligible. It is high. Discovering those remains after a corridor is locked in creates construction delays, legal proceedings, and disruptions to the dignity of the deceased that cannot be remedied by any amount of subsequent consultation or compensation.
This is not a theoretical objection. It is a predictable legal constraint that responsible infrastructure planning requires to be assessed before, not after, route selection.
Cemetery data sourced from: Frontenac County GIS cemetery inventory; Howard E. French, “Rideau Lakes Cemetery Locations,” November 2023. Distances are approximate and should not be taken as indicating confirmed corridor intersection. This brief does not constitute legal advice.