History

In 1912 Mason "Pop" Sands established his first funeral home on Quadra Street in Victoria, British Columbia. Today, over 90 years later, Sands has expanded to four locations on Vancouver Island. Chapels in Victoria, Colwood, Duncan and Nanaimo collectively providing funeral service to some 1200 client families each year. Fourteen provincially licensed funeral directors and embalmers, 6 administration personnel and our numerous para-funeral associates work from contemporary facilities and strive to provide only the highest standards of service. We believe our commitment to funeral service is as strong as our founder Mr. Sands when he said that his funeral home would establish a " Tradition of Trust" in the communities we serve.

          

Commitment

Sands Funeral Chapels have been serving the needs of Vancouver Island for over 90 years. We are proud of our service record and we commit fully to every family we are privileged to serve:

• We will provide information regarding all services and merchandise in a straightforward manner.
  
• We will ensure that families receive information regarding all service options available to them so they can make an informed decision.
• Funeral costs will be decided by the family and will depend on the type and level of service they decide to provide.
• We consider it our obligation to assist the family in designing a service that allows for complete personalization and remembrance based on their individual needs and preferences.
• We will provide only the highest standard of service, quality of merchandise, and facilities.

Our goal is to avoid mis-information and ensure that any decisions are based on knowledge and options. We welcome all questions you may have.

Our commitment to those we serve is to provide as many options as possible to a family that will allow them to best meet their bereavement and disposition needs. Offering those options and allowing a client's family the freedom to choose and personalize their service needs helps them to come to terms with the death of someone close to them. A funeral or memorial service will also allow the public to share their loss with the family and recognize the valuable life that was lived. Pre-planning is something we strongly recommend as this allows a person to make many important decisions that will otherwise be left to survivors in a difficult and emotional time.

We are proud to be affiliated with Arbor Memorial Services Inc.of Canada. A Canadian company, Arbor Memorial Services owns over 87 funeral homes and 41 cemeteries and 27 crematoriums from Victoria to Halifax. On Vancouver Island we work very closely with our local cemeteries, Hatley Memorial Gardens and Crematorium in Victoria and Cedar Valley Memorial Gardens and Crematorium in Nanaimo. Transient populations and the ever "shrinking" world allows us to work closely with our 4 funeral homes and 1 cemetery on the BC Lower Mainland as well as all our affiliated locations across Canada.