From the CBC:
“Months-long wait for death
certificates taking emotional, financial toll on Quebec families”
Cheryl Couchman says she's barely
had time to grieve her sister, Heather, who died of cancer in May. Instead,
Couchman, who is the executor of her sister's will, is preoccupied with trying
to settle her estate. She can't do that until she receives Heather's official
death certificate. But wait times for death certificates in Quebec have
increased to three times the national average, or more, adding to the distress
of families mourning loved ones and trying to settle their affairs. Couchman
says at first the funeral home told her it would take about five or six weeks
to get the certificate. But her wait has dragged on for more than three months.
"You keep thinking you're going to get it in the mail, like that week, or
the next week," she said. Couchman and her family have paid more than
$10,000 out of pocket because they were unable to resolve some of her sister's
bills and close some of her accounts. "I've been through some things in my
lifetime that added pressure. This, it's almost unbearable," she said. Heather
Couchman died last May from cancer. Without an official death certificate from
the province, her family can't do a search for a will or insurance policies.
(Submitted by Cheryl Couchman) Couchman has tried to find out the reason for
the holdup by calling Quebec's civil status registry directly, the government
department responsible for processing death certificates, but says she can't
get through to an agent. Couchman said she only gets a recorded message saying
there is a high volume of people waiting on hold and to call back later, and is
then disconnected. "There's really no other way you can contact
them," she said. "You are at their mercy."
Death certificate essential
More than 60,000 Quebecers die
every year, according to Statistics Canada. A death certificate is an essential
document for many people to wind up the affairs of deceased loved ones. Issued
by the province, it's often needed to access a loved one's money, pay off
funeral expenses, stop bill payments and cancel everything from driver's
licences to car registration and insurance. It also makes it easier, and
cheaper, to do will and life insurance searches. Across Canada, the average
wait for a death certificate is 10 days, plus mailing time, according to figures
compiled by CBC News. Alberta, Newfoundland and British Columbia are the
fastest, ranging from one to five days. In Ontario, it takes a little over two
weeks. In Quebec, it's supposed to be 10 days, but for the past year the
average processing time is between 30 and 40 business days. Several funeral
directors and families told CBC News the wait is often much longer than that. 'I
don't think it's acceptable' Jane Blanchard handles death certificate
applications for clients at Montreal's Kane and Fetterly funeral home, which
holds about 300 funerals a year. Thumbing through a pile of 30 cases for which
she is still waiting for certificates, some of the oldest applications date
back to April. "Some May, some June. Forget about July. August? Don't even
talk about it, because we're not getting those for a while," said
Blanchard, an aftercare counsellor. Blanchard started noticing a dramatic
slowdown in the government's response time last summer. "They were saying
there were many weddings, people on vacation, new staff — that was last
August," she said. A year later, the situation hasn't improved, and
calling the civil status registry doesn't help. In fact, funeral homes were
specifically told not to call to follow up until two months after a death. If
there's a problem or missing information in the file, Blanchard said, they
won't know or be able to correct it in a timely way. Families are frustrated
and Blanchard understands they feel stuck. Some can't pay the funeral costs or
list properties for sale until they have a death certificate. "I don't
think it's acceptable," said Blanchard. "Unfortunately, we've become
used to it, so it's the norm."
Civil status registry in disarray
The government acknowledges
there's a backlog. Vincent Breton, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Labour,
Employment and Social Solidarity, which oversees the civil status registry,
said there have been several "organizational upheavals" in the
department over the past 24 months. It's now responsible for six new
registries, including the gun registry. A shortage of workers in the ministry
has created a backlog and led to existing staff feeling overworked, he said in
an email. Labour Minister Jean Boulet empathizes with families who are waiting.
"I am extremely preoccupied by those processing times," said Boulet,
who added he knows how important it is for people to settle estates quickly. "I've
put a plan of action [in place] to shorten those times as quickly as
possible." This summer, the
ministry hired 20 new people to work exclusively on the death certificate
backlog. It's also asking funeral homes,
notaries and families to make sure the information they submit is complete. Boulet expects the department will be able to
get wait times back to normal by the end of the year.
Emotional, financial toll
That's little consolation for
Couchman. Besides funeral costs, Couchman has her sister's outstanding bills to
pay. The largest expense is the monthly car loan payment. Heather Couchman's
Hyundai has sat in her driveway on the West Island since her death. They can't
sell it or transfer ownership without her death certificate, so they have to
keep making loan payments to avoid having it repossessed. "You don't sleep
at night, your head is [swirling]: What's my next step, what's my next
step?" said Couchman. She'd like to see a simpler death certificate system
put in place where families can track their applications. If there is missing
information, she says it should be flagged right away so the details can be
sent via email. That way, Couchman says, families could at least foresee when the
estate could be wrapped up and begin the grieving process. "I'd really
like to take five minutes to myself and remember her, you know? But I haven't
been able to do that. I really haven't."
^ The mess in Quebec is
completely unacceptable and needs to be resolved NOW and not by the end of the
year. It is a disgrace to make grieving families wait more than 2 weeks to get
a Death Certificate. When a member of my family passed away we received their
Death Certificate in a few days. There is absolutely no reason why, coming on
the 3rd decade of the 21st Century, that any
Province/Territory in Canada or any State/Territory in the US can not give an
official Death Certificate within 2 weeks (especially when there is no evidence
of foul-play.) If it takes longer than 2 weeks than it is because of human laziness
and/or stupidity and nothing else. It’s clear the system in Quebec is broken
and not only needs to be fixed immediately, but there also needs to be investigations
into why it was allowed to get to this point in the first-place and those responsible
need to be removed so it can’t happen again. Right now the Quebec Provincial
Government is showing complete disrespect to the deceased and their families
and that is just plain wrong. ^
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