In a six-to-one vote, council approved a proposal for an alkaline hydroloysis unit for water-based cremation at Swift Current Funeral Home.

Swift Current's general manager of planning and growth development Michael Ruus said there was a fair amount of public input on the idea of a water-based cremation system being in town.

"There were questions about the waste water system and the output from the equipment. In this case the output is essentially pH neutral, and there's no real risk to Swift Current's waste water system. In fact it may have a beneficial impact to our system because it is an alkaline output - slightly alkaline within our engineering standards. And then some of the concerns around kind of the safety and storage of the chemical, that's being mitigated by the amount of chemical that is included as a condition for the developer to be able to store on the site and how that's being stored is monitored by the equipment manufacturer and their organization as a whole.

Councillor Ron Toles was the only one to vote against the proposal.

The subject was last brought up in council two weeks prior.

"We needed additional time just to go through all of the feedback that was received from the public and just explore some of the questions that were being raised," Ruus said.

The funeral home needs to provide some extra information surrounding the conditions on the permit, and then they'll be able to start operations.