SYDNEY, N.S. — The Nova Scotia Board of Registration of Embalmers and Funeral Directors will be holding an Inquiry into the professional conduct of Jillian Nemis, regarding her time as funeral director at S.W. Chant and Son Funeral Home.
Kortney Adams, executive manager of the board, said the inquiry will be held in Sydney, Nov. 12 and Nov. 13.
In an emailed statement, Adams said, following the Inquiry, the board will release a written decision outlining its findings, expected to come three to five weeks after the proceedings.
The inquiry will include whether there was professional misconduct, a violation of the act and regulations that govern the profession.
Witnesses will be called during the proceedings.
When there is an inquiry and some type of misconduct or violation is determined, there could be a suspension of a licence or a licence could be revoked.
A suspension would be for a set period of time, while a revocation would see them stripped of their licence indefinitely. As well, the individual could be found not at fault of any violation under the act.
When asked if there will be any other inquiries regarding the conduct of funeral directors from Chant funeral home, Adams said the board will not be putting forth any additional information at this time. Once the Inquiry has been concluded, a release will be issued, she said.
The Chant funeral home employed an apprentice and multiple licence holders, some holding a funeral director's licence, some an embalmer’s licence and some holding both.
In an earlier story in the Cape Breton Post, Adams said such inquiries are rate. This is the first one this year. There were no inquiries in 2018 and only one in 2017.
In June 2018, Service Nova Scotia announced a six-month suspension of S.W. Chant and Son Funeral Home's licence to sell prearranged funeral plans and permanently revoked its ability to sell trust funds after investigating a complaint.
The funeral home’s licence was suspended following a fire at the funeral home on Feb. 2, 2019. In the meantime, between June 2018 and February 2019, people began coming forward with complaints about prearranged funerals with the funeral home, although Service Nova Scotia said there were no funds in the funeral home’s trust account.
In February, Sheldon Chant, owner of the funeral home, informed Service Nova Scotia they would be surrendering their licence. Since that time, the licence has been officially cancelled.
Service Nova Scotia said there ended up being a total of 102 unfunded pre-arranged trust contracts verified with the funeral home, a value of approximately $315,000. All these contracts have since been refunded
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