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Mount Pleasant has even described itself as a “commercial, privately owned” entity, which now controls 10 cemeteries, 14 mausoleums, four crematoriums and a pet memorial service. One of the spin-off companies runs the Simple Alternative funeral company. None pay taxes.

Exactly how much revenue is pulled in, precisely what happens to surplus earnings and how the proceeds of a $5-million sale of cemetery land in 2006 were used are all considered corporate secrets.

Critics say the government must act quickly to pull the company “back” into the public fold.

“This is a stealth privatization of a public asset: I know this with every single fibre of my being,” said Margot Boyd, who has led a group of community activists concerned about the corporation’s activities. “They’re trying to take it from us. This is our land, this is our heritage, this is our history.”

The Mount Pleasant company, however, says the criticisms just do not hold water. That 19th-Century legislation may have set up a non-profit trust to oversee the new cemetery, but never indicated it was to be publicly owned, said Rick Cowan, Mount Pleasant Group’s marketing vice president.

It is now run like any other not-for-profit corporation, and has done an exemplary job of catering to the funeral and burial needs of Ontarians, he said.

“Everything we’ve done has been above-board,” said Mr. Cowan. “Why is this being pursued? What harm has this organization caused anybody? … We are considered probably the pre-eminent cemetery organization in North America. We have to be doing something right.”