Funeral Chapel Opens New Building

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Birchwood Funeral Chapel in Steinbach is now officially open. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held this week opening the twenty thousand square foot building near Southland Church.

Board Chair Elbert Toews says it became evident a couple of years ago that they were running out of space at their site off Penfeld Drive. The number of funerals had increased to three hundred per year, which caused congestion. And, he says there was often expectations of running multiple funerals on the same day.

The decision was made to build new and Toews admits he originally felt the space they were looking at was too large.

"In my own personal way I thought people wanted more than I thought we needed at this time," says Toews. "However it's good to project forward and you never know exactly what the future will hold."

Toews says Birchwood handles more than ninety per cent of all funeral services required in the area and with southeastern Manitoba still experiencing growth, it's a good thing they built something large enough to handle it. The new facility has two chapels allowing for more than one funeral service to be held in a single day.

"It's quite large and quite amazing," notes Toews, who also refers to it as a facility like no other.

"Just amazing," says Toews. "Very well designed certainly for the causes that a funeral home has. The architects I think have done a wonderful job in putting together what they have."

Planning for Birchwood Funeral Chapel started in 1996. Toews says by 1998 they were operational. Toews admits he's surprised other communities haven't attempted to duplicate the funeral co-op concept.

(left to right: Steinbach Mayor Chris Goertzen, Managing Funeral Director Todd Harder, Board Chair Elbert Toews)