Bronze Plaques Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is the one Atlantic province whose cemetery law speaks directly about memorials. The Cemetery and Funeral Services Act defines a memorial to include a plaque, tablet or plate marking a grave, and gives the purchaser of a lot the right to erect one, subject to the specifications in the purchase agreement. Those specifications are the cemetery’s own rules, and in the Halifax Regional Municipality they are written into By-law C-700, which permits bronze only as a flat marker in the cremation gardens at Fairview Lawn and Mount Hermon. Elsewhere in the province, from the Catholic cemeteries around Halifax to the memorial gardens in Dartmouth and Sydney, the rules are either partly published or not published at all. This page sets out what is known, what to ask each office, and how a cast bronze plaque from our online designer fits on the granite base those cemeteries expect.

What the Cemetery and Funeral Services Act says about memorials

The Cemetery and Funeral Services Act (Revised Statutes 1989, chapter 62, as amended to 2018) licenses cemetery operators in Nova Scotia, and three parts of it matter to a family buying a bronze plaque.

• The definition. Section 2 defines “memorial” as a memorial, marker, monument, headstone, footstone, tombstone, plaque, tablet or plate marking a grave, and extends it to lettering on the front of a niche. A cast bronze plaque is a memorial in law wherever it sits.
• The purchaser’s right. Section 22(1)(c) says the sale of a lot vests in the purchaser “the right to erect a memorial on the lot subject to any specifications provided for by the purchase agreement”. You have a right to a memorial; the cemetery has the right to specify its size, material and setting in the agreement you signed.
• Installation as a regulated service. The Act counts “installation of memorials” among the services an operator provides. No size or material rule appears in the statute itself; those live in each cemetery’s by-law.

Halifax Regional Municipality By-law C-700 in brief

HRM’s By-law Respecting Municipal Cemeteries, By-law C-700, was last amended with effect from September 9, 2025. It governs Fairview Lawn and Camp Hill in Halifax and Mount Hermon, Saint Peter’s, Dartmouth Common and Saint Paul’s in Dartmouth. The points that decide whether a bronze plaque can be used:

• Section 11(1): “All stones are to be installed by a monument dealer or their agent.”
• Section 12(2) requires monuments to be granite, cut stone or marble, and section 14(4) requires flat markers to be granite, cut stone or marble. Bronze is not listed for traditional lots.
• Section 23 is the one place bronze is named. Lots in section 9A of the Fairview Lawn Cremation Garden and sections H, G and A of the Mount Hermon Cremation Garden may have one flat marker “made of granite, cut stone, marble or bronze” up to 22 inches long by 12 inches wide and between 4 and 6 inches thick, installed by the monument dealer on a standard foundation. Sections 9B, 9C, 16A, 16B and 16C at Fairview Lawn and section N at Mount Hermon allow one marker of the same materials up to 28 inches long by 18 inches wide, again 4 to 6 inches thick.
• Section 18 makes the lot owner pay for the foundation and the setting, at charges set by Council policy and paid before the work begins.

Administrative Order 20, the fee order for cemetery services, was amended on September 27, 2025 and lists a “Foundation/ mark administration fee” of $100.00 plus tax (2025 fee schedule). The actual foundation and setting charges are not printed in the order. The full detail, with lot prices and the 2025 fee table, is on our bronze plaques Halifax page.

Catholic Cemeteries of Halifax and the 2025 standards

Catholic Cemeteries of Halifax, which operates Gate of Heaven in Lower Sackville among others, published a “Memorial and Foundation Standards” document updated March 1, 2025. We could read it only in search snippets, because the archdiocesan website did not load during our research, so treat every point here as something to confirm with the office. The snippets say memorials must be granite, cut stone or bronze, that a marker is “a ground level structure of bronze or quarried stone”, and that nothing may be installed until the design, description and size have been approved through a Memorial Application Process. For Gate of Heaven the snippets add that markers must be not more than 6 inches or less than 4 inches in height and inscribed with a cross. If that is right, a cast bronze plaque with a cross emblem on a granite base 4 to 6 inches thick is the compliant form. Ask the office for the full standards and price list first.

Cities in Nova Scotia

Halifax. The municipal cemeteries under By-law C-700, the Catholic cemeteries and the private memorial gardens are covered on the bronze plaques Halifax page.

Dartmouth. Four of the six HRM cemeteries are in Dartmouth: Mount Hermon, Saint Peter’s, Dartmouth Common and Saint Paul’s. Mount Hermon is the one where bronze is permitted, in cremation garden sections H, G and A (22 by 12 inch marker) and section N (28 by 18 inch marker), set by a monument dealer under By-law C-700. Dartmouth Memorial Gardens on Main Street is a private Arbor Memorial cemetery that publishes no by-law, sizes or fees, so ask its office whether it accepts a family supplied bronze marker, what size and base it wants, and what it charges to set it.

Sydney and Cape Breton. Forest Haven Memorial Gardens on Grand Lake Road, another Arbor Memorial cemetery, and Resurrection Cemetery of the Diocese of Antigonish publish nothing we could find, and we found no Cape Breton Regional Municipality cemetery by-law. Ask the office for its written rules, the maximum flat marker size for your section, and whether a bronze plaque on a granite base is allowed and who may set it.

We supply the bronze, the base is arranged locally

Every rule quoted on this page is written around a complete flush marker: a bronze tablet on a granite base, measured by its outer size and set by someone the cemetery recognises. We make the bronze part, cast in solid LG2 statuary bronze with raised polished lettering on a textured background, in any size from a small name plate up to 22 1/16 by 15 3/4 inches (560 by 400 mm), with a border, emblem, ceramic photo or fused image if you want one. Choose lugs with studs and the casting comes with threaded studs on the back ready to be bolted through a granite slab. We do not cut or pour the base. In Nova Scotia the base comes from the monument dealer who will set the marker; give the dealer our proof, which shows the exact bronze size and stud positions, and ask for a base that brings the finished unit within the cemetery’s envelope and thickness rule. For the 22 by 12 inch gardens a 16 by 8 or 18 by 10 inch bronze leaves a 2 to 3 inch granite margin; for the 28 by 18 inch gardens a 22 by 12 inch plaque, which is $2,118.74 in the designer, does the same. A 20 by 10 inch plaque is $1,759.60, shipping across Canada included.

Veterans’ graves in Nova Scotia

Veterans Affairs Canada, through the Last Post Fund, provides eligible Veterans with a grey granite military style marker, upright or flat, and “in certain cases, flat bronze”. The Fund’s Nova Scotia branch has a Veterans’ Columbarium at Fairview Lawn, and By-law C-700 section 7(3) makes monuments placed by the Last Post Fund, Veterans Affairs Canada or the Commonwealth War Graves Commission subject to the approval of the HRM Supervisor. A family that wants its own cast bronze marker on a Veteran’s grave in a civilian cemetery should speak to the cemetery and to the Last Post Fund before ordering; neither publishes a route for replacing the funded marker, and we do not promise one. See bronze memorial plaques for emblems, and garden plaques for memorials outside any cemetery.

What the plaque itself costs, delivered to Nova Scotia

The table below is our price for the cast bronze plaque itself, read from the design tool on this website on 14 October 2026 for a standard rectangle with the default border and background. Every figure is in Canadian dollars and includes delivery to any address in Nova Scotia.

Size, inches (mm)	Typical use	Our price, delivery included
6 x 4 in (152 x 102 mm)	Name and dates on a small cremation plot, urn or pet memorial	$478.72
8 x 6 in (203 x 152 mm)	Cremation garden plaque or a short dedication on a bench or wall	$674.98
10 x 8 in (254 x 203 mm)	Cremation lot marker with a line of wording or an emblem	$889.05
12 x 8 in (305 x 203 mm)	Single lawn marker with name, dates and a line of wording	$996.08
16 x 12 in (406 x 305 mm)	Single grave marker with an emblem, or a companion cremation marker	$1,580.02
18 x 12 in (457 x 305 mm)	Larger single marker or a dedication plaque with several lines	$1,759.60
20 x 10 in (508 x 254 mm)	The 20 by 10 inch flat marker size many municipal cemeteries list	$1,759.60
22 x 12 in (559 x 305 mm)	Companion marker or wide single marker inside a 24 inch envelope	$2,118.74
22 1/16 x 15 3/4 in (560 x 400 mm)	The largest size the designer makes, for double markers and dedication tablets	$2,456.76

Any cemetery charge quoted higher on this page, such as a setting fee, a permit, a foundation or a care and maintenance contribution, is paid to the cemetery and is separate from our price. Add the two together for the full installed cost. Open the design tool, type in the size your cemetery allows, and the exact price for that size appears before you order.

How to order

1. Ask the cemetery office for its marker specification: the maximum size, the base it requires and the form it needs signed. Most offices email it the same day.
2. Open the free design tool, pick the shape and set the size in inches or centimetres. The price in Canadian dollars updates as you go.
3. Add the wording, choose a border and background, and add an emblem, motif or photo if you want one. Choose lugs with studs if the plaque will be bolted to a granite or concrete base, or a flat back for adhesive mounting.
4. Save the design and order it from My Account. We send a written proof that you can forward to the cemetery for approval, and nothing is cast until you approve it.

Frequently asked questions

Can I put a bronze plaque on a grave in Nova Scotia?

Yes where the cemetery’s rules allow it. Within the Halifax Regional Municipality, By-law C-700 names bronze only for flat markers in the cremation gardens at Fairview Lawn and Mount Hermon. Catholic Cemeteries of Halifax lists bronze as an accepted material in its 2025 standards, which we have read only in snippets. Private and church cemeteries elsewhere set their own rules, so ask the office first.

Does the province set a size or fee for grave markers?

No. The Cemetery and Funeral Services Act defines a memorial and protects the purchaser’s right to erect one, but leaves sizes, materials and setting fees to the purchase agreement and the cemetery’s by-law. The only published fee tied to a marker that we found is HRM’s $100.00 administration fee plus tax (2025).

Who installs a bronze marker in a Nova Scotia cemetery?

In HRM cemeteries a monument dealer or their agent must do it, under section 11(1) of By-law C-700. Elsewhere ask the office. We supply the cast bronze with studs on the back; the dealer supplies the granite base and sets the finished unit.

What should I ask a cemetery in Dartmouth or Sydney that publishes nothing?

Ask for the written memorial rules, the maximum flat marker size and thickness for your section, whether a bronze plaque on a granite base is accepted, who may install it, the foundation and setting charges with their effective year, and the installation season.

How long does a bronze plaque take in Nova Scotia?

Allow about four to six weeks from payment to delivery. Casting and hand finishing take most of that time, and we send a free written proof before anything is cast. If your cemetery only sets markers in the frost free season, order early enough for the spring installation window.