Canadian volunteers maintain war graves to reduce commission costs

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission launched a volunteer program to maintain war graves across Canada, reducing the need for staff to travel across the country.

The commission manages 15,000 graves at nearly 3,000 Canadian sites. Previously, the agency dispatched employees to 10 provinces and the Yukon to perform maintenance, which pressured the commission's budget and the environment. To address this, the organization recruited volunteers through social media and the Royal Canadian Legion.

Katrielle Ethier, a spokeswoman for the commission, says more than 600 people joined the program since last year. Volunteers perform tasks such as scrubbing granite headstones, trimming weeds, and removing lichen. Participants use a mobile application to report structural issues or worn inscriptions to the commission. These reports allow the agency to send professional workers to handle significant repairs.

The program allows residents to personally care for the resting places of soldiers who died during the First and Second world wars. Many of the graves in sites like Prospect Cemetery in Toronto belong to soldiers who died from illness or accidents during training at home. While most of the 60,000 Canadians killed in the First World War remain in Europe, thousands of others are buried across Canada.

The commission now oversees 23,000 cemeteries and memorials globally, honoring 1.7 million casualties.