Few details about new N.L. plan to deal with unclaimed bodies

The Newfoundland and Labrador government has changed the rules aimed at burying unclaimed human remains — including how long family have to claim a body, and launching a website to help people do that.

But there are few details about how the new website will work.

According to the amended legislation, which was filed on Dec. 24 and came into effect on Jan. 1, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services will have 14 days to find a person able to claim an individual body, like a spouse, a parent, or a child.

The move comes after extensive CBC reporting revealed dozens of bodies were going unclaimed in the province's largest hospital.

If the health authority isn't able to find someone within those two weeks, they'll then post a notice on the new website for five days.

If the health authority believes a person may come forward to claim the body after that time frame has expired, the authority can delay making a decision on what to do with the body and allow for more time.

Under these new regulations, NLHS can now dispose of unclaimed bodies by burial, cremation or another unstated method the health authority considers to be "appropriate in the circumstances."

CBC News has asked both the health authority and Health Minister John Hogan for an interview.

Questions linger

However, there are still many unknown details about the process, including what information about individual unclaimed bodies the health authority will post online, whether that information will include the deceased's name, age or community they are from.

Previously, Hogan has refused to say exactly how many bodies are currently unclaimed, citing privacy concerns.

It also isn't clear what will happen to cremated remains of unclaimed bodies, like whether they will be stored or also buried.

In December, the government began amending the Provincial Health Authority Act and Fatalities Investigations Act to allow the health authority to tackle unclaimed human remains — a problem that has been on the public and political radar for almost a year.

In March, CBC News first reported  the health authority was storing 28 bodies in freezer units in an alleyway on hospital property, due to a lack of space in the morgue, which doubles as the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Over the summer, NLHS relocated the freezers to the Health Sciences Centres parking garage and built a wall around it.

During the bill's debate in December, Hogan said there were approximately three dozen bodies in storage, and the new rules would allow the health authority to bury about 20 per cent of them.

The other bodies are being overseen by a public trustee, who is working on arranging burial, as well as bodies that are part of the Chief Medical Examiner's examinations.

"The purpose of the legislation is to plug that gap to allow NLHS to deal with those remains who either aren't going to the public trustee for whatever reason, or aren't going to the Chief Medical Examiner because they don't fall within that piece of legislation," Hogan said in the House of Assembly in December.

"If they're already at a funeral home, they're not the authority of the NLHS."

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