The chunk of land where Memory Gardens Cemetery lies created some discord for Swift Current city council Monday night.

Warren & Son Ltd., which owns the land, was seeking city council approval to have the lot subdivided, so the cemetery grounds and the future crematorium/shop are on separate legal parcels of land.

Just before the vote took place Councillor Ryan Plewis voiced his concerns with the business asking to split the lot.

"What we're doing here, it would be allowing the chunking off of the cemetery portion of this land, from the useful or revenue-generating portion of land," he told council. "I have concern that making them into two titles or two separate pieces of property, despite the fact they might be tied, despite the fact they have servicing agreements and easement agreements, could lead people to impute that at some point in time that might be beneficial to the owners to not own anymore.

"I guess my concern Mr. Ruus (General Manager of Planning and Growth Development for Swift Current, Michael Ruus) is that is not a sale that I'm concerned about, not an intended change of use that I'm concerned about, in fact, it's the exact thing that they would want to maintain the current use, but maybe not be responsible for that portion... Which would allow them to maintain, like I said, the crematorium portion, the revenue-generating portion of the property, but not the expense portion... The result could be that here is the keys for the cemetery, we don't want to look after it anymore, the City is going to have to look after it or nobody will."

Plewis seemed to be the only councillor wanting to know Warren & Son Ltd.'s intention behind subdividing the lot.

"I'd be quite prepared to move forward with this (report) tonight," Swift Current Councillor Pat Friesen. "I don't think we can presuppose what is going to happen in the future with these things, so I'd be quite prepared to move forward with the vote this evening."

Swift Current Councillors George Bowditch and Ron Toles echoed similar sentiments to Friesen's.

"I agree with Councillor Friesen, I think the potential is there for any business to shut down and leave us responsible, I just don't know whether this is any different," Bowditch said. "Yes it's difficult and I understand exactly what councillor Plewis is saying as well and I just don't think that we should get into a position of choosing the actions when we're at this situation."

Council eventually held a vote on the report after 15 minutes of discussion with five votes in favour of subdividing the lot to Plewis' sole vote against.

The City stated that the subdivide of the plot was reviewed against all of their policies and bylaws and no issues were identified.