Alfred Dallaire Memoria cremation cost vs. Cleo: a side-by-side Montreal comparison

If you're reading this, you're probably staring at two very different paths. On one side, Memoria, long known in the city as Alfred Dallaire, a name your parents knew, with designed memorial complexes scattered across the Island of Montreal. On the other, Cleo, a newer direct cremation provider with one all-inclusive price published on its website. Both are legitimate. Neither is the right answer for every family.

What follows is a side-by-side look at Memoria's cremation cost, services, ownership, and reviews, written by Cleo. It's written to be useful even if you choose Memoria, because for some families, you should. We'll explain when, and why. Then we'll lay out what Cleo offers, what it doesn't, and how to compare any Montreal funeral provider on the things that matter when you're signing a contract.

If your loved one has just passed away and you need a phone right now, ours is open 24 hours a day, every day, in French and English: (438) 817-1770.

Who is Memoria?

Memoria's roots go back to 1942, when Alfred Dallaire opened his first funeral home in Montreal. For more than half a century the business carried the family name. In the late 2000s, Alfred Dallaire's daughter, Jocelyne Dallaire-Légaré, reorganized the company under a new identity, Memoria, and commissioned a series of strikingly modern funeral complexes that would become the brand's signature.

Those buildings matter. Memoria's complex on Avenue Papineau, designed by Saucier + Perrotte, has been written about in Canadian Architect and is one of the most-photographed contemporary funeral spaces in the country. Other locations were designed by Atelier TAG and Cardin Ramirez Julien. If you've ever attended a service at Memoria and noticed the architecture before you noticed the casket, that's by design, literally. The brand's premise is that the room you grieve in shapes the way you grieve.

The Athos Services Commémoratifs network

Memoria is now part of Athos Services Commémoratifs, the largest funeral group in Quebec. According to Athos's own corporate history, the network operates 28 funeral complexes and 5 cemetery gardens across the province, including Urgel Bourgie (acquired by Athos in 2012) and Lépine Cloutier (founded 1845). Memoria sits inside that group as one of its flagship Montreal brands.

The 2024 TorQuest Partners acquisition

On October 16, 2024, Athos itself was sold to TorQuest Partners, a Toronto-based private-equity firm. The deal was confirmed by McCarthy Tétrault, the law firm representing the seller, and by Canadian Lawyer magazine. From the family's point of view at the moment of arranging a service, very little changes day-to-day, the same staff, the same complexes, the same brand. Over time, private-equity ownership in any consumer-facing industry tends to influence pricing strategy, package structure, and which services get pushed. We're not editorializing on whether that's good or bad. We're noting it because most families don't know it, and it's a fact that may inform the questions you ask before signing.

BNQ certification and OPC registration

Memoria is registered with the Office de la protection du consommateur du Québec (OPC), the consumer-protection regulator that oversees funeral contracts in this province, and operates under the standards of the Bureau de normalisation du Québec (BNQ). Both are baseline credibility checks for any Quebec funeral provider, and Memoria meets them.

What Memoria offers

Memoria's strength is breadth. It's a full-service funeral group, which means almost anything a Montreal family might want under the heading of "funeral arrangements" is something Memoria can handle in-house. According to memoria.ca, that includes:

• Full-service funerals with on-site reception and ceremony space
• Cremation with services (the body is present at a memorial before cremation)
• Direct cremation (cremation only, no memorial through the funeral home)
• Pre-arrangement plans and pre-payment
• Cemetery and columbarium options through the broader Athos network
• French and English service throughout

Locations span the Island of Montreal and the surrounding region, including the well-known complex on Avenue Papineau in the Plateau-Mont-Royal, plus complexes in Côte-des-Neiges, Saint-Vincent-de-Paul (Laval), Repentigny, and Brossard. Confirm current addresses on memoria.ca before you visit; the brand has reorganized locations over the years.

Alfred Dallaire Memoria cremation cost: what families actually pay

Memoria does not publish cremation prices on its website. To get a number, you call, you book a meeting, or you fill out a quote-request form. This is the standard model for full-service funeral groups in Quebec, including Urgel Bourgie, Magnus Poirier, and others. It's legal and common. The practical effect for families: you can't see Memoria's pricing alongside other providers' until you've already initiated contact with each one.

Why prices aren't published online

The industry argument is that every family is different, different services, different urns, different ceremonies, so a published number wouldn't be accurate. There's truth in that. The countervailing reality is that families shopping for cremation often want a base number to compare against, and a quote-only model means you can't compare without a phone call to each provider.

For a deeper look at how Quebec providers structure their pricing, see our guide to the true cost of a funeral in Quebec.

Reported price ranges (third-party data)

Based on third-party Montreal comparison data, including Cleo's own 2026 review of Greater Montreal direct cremation providers, Memoria's reported pricing in 2026 looks roughly like this:

Confirm current pricing in writing with Memoria before signing. These are reported ranges, not official quotes, and pricing varies by location, urn selection, and ceremony details.

For full breakdowns of what each line item should cost across Quebec providers, see our complete breakdown of cremation costs in Quebec.

Your right to a written, itemized quote

Under Quebec's Loi sur les arrangements funéraires et de sépulture, you have the right to a written, itemized quote before signing any funeral contract. This applies to Memoria, to Cleo, to every licensed provider in the province. If a representative is reluctant to put numbers on paper before you commit, that's a flag worth noting, at any provider. A clear written quote also makes it possible to compare apples to apples between providers, which is hard to do over the phone.

For a checklist of the documents you'll need throughout the process, see our guide to cremation paperwork in Quebec.

Cleo at a glance

Cleo does one thing: direct cremation. We don't run cemeteries, we don't host services, we don't sell urn upgrades. The whole company is built around a single, fixed, all-inclusive price for direct cremation, published on our website, the same in writing as it is on the phone, with no add-ons for transport from the place of death, paperwork, basic urn, or weekend pickups.

You can see our current pricing on the website without a phone call. For a fully itemized list of what's included in Cleo's cremation service, we publish that too.

A few things to know about Cleo before reading further:

• We're a newer brand, but the team isn't new to Montreal funeral service. Our founders come from Paperman & Sons and Rideau Memorial, both century-old Montreal institutions. "Newer brand" doesn't mean "less experienced people."
• We're an independent company, not part of a larger funeral group.
• Personal hand delivery of ashes and certificates is included. That's a Cleo founder or a member of our care team showing up at your door, not a courier.
• We answer the phone in French and English, around the clock. Phone: (438) 817-1770.

For a longer look at what direct cremation actually means and how it differs from a traditional funeral, see our explainer on direct cremation.

Side-by-side: Alfred Dallaire Memoria cremation cost and services vs. Cleo

Here's the part Patricia (the spreadsheet-builder) is reading this article for. Lay it out, side by side, and decide.

A note on reviews

Online reviews for any Montreal funeral home should be read with care. Memoria has separate Google Maps listings for each complex, and per-location ratings sit on small samples that aren't statistically meaningful in either direction. The Quebec food and culture publication Tastet has documented systemic issues with Google review platforms, including in the funeral industry, that affect how aggregate scores should be read. If you're using reviews to evaluate Memoria (or any provider), check sample size alongside the rating, read the most recent ones across multiple platforms, and put more weight on what specific reviewers describe than on the star average.

Which is right for which family?

This is the section every comparison article should have and almost none do. Here's our honest read.

When Memoria may be the better fit

Choose Memoria, or another full-service Quebec provider in the Athos network, if your family wants:

• A traditional or cremation-with-services memorial held at the funeral home itself, with a viewing or ceremony before the cremation
• A designed memorial space that matters to your family aesthetically (Memoria's architecture is genuinely a feature, not marketing)
• Cemetery or columbarium integration through the Athos network, especially if family members are already buried at one of their cemeteries
• Full ritual flexibility for religious or culturally specific ceremonies that need on-site coordination
• One provider for everything, funeral, memorial, cemetery, reception, handled by a single team

If any of those describe what your family wants, Cleo is not your best option. Direct cremation isn't designed to replace a memorial; it just decouples the cremation from one. For some families, that decoupling is wrong, and a full-service provider is right. Say it out loud: that's a real choice many families should make.

When Cleo may be the better fit

Choose Cleo if your family wants:

• Direct cremation only, the simplest legal form, with no on-site memorial through the funeral home
• A fixed, published price you can see on a website without making a call
• A custom memorial held later on your own terms, at home, at a celebration of life venue in Montreal, in nature, or not at all
• Out-of-town coordination by phone, with personal hand delivery of ashes anywhere in our service area
• A simpler decision during a week when you don't have the bandwidth for a multi-package consultation

There's a particular family that often lands here: the adult daughter who tells us her mother said "no fuss, just cremate me." That family doesn't need a designed memorial complex. They need someone to handle the cremation cleanly so they can throw the celebration their mother actually wanted, somewhere their mother actually loved.

For more on how Cleo's model differs from a traditional Quebec funeral home, see Cleo vs. traditional funeral homes: what's actually included.

When it's a tie

If you genuinely can't decide, get written, itemized quotes from both. That's your right under Quebec law. Compare the line items, not the totals. Totals hide what's included.

Ask each provider to confirm in writing that the quote is the final price, with no add-ons except for items you specifically request. Memoria, Cleo, or anyone else should be willing to do this. If they're not, that itself is information.

How to evaluate any Montreal funeral provider

Whether you choose Memoria, Cleo, or someone else, these five steps protect you at any provider. They take less than an hour, and they catch most of the things that go sideways in funeral arrangements. If you're still orienting to the broader sequence, our complete cremation planning checklist for Quebec covers everything from the first call to the ashes coming home.

1. Ask for a written, itemized quote

Quebec law requires it on request. The quote should list every line item, transport, cremation, paperwork, urn, certificates, ceremony space if applicable, with a dollar figure beside each. "Package pricing" without an itemized breakdown is your cue to ask for one.

2. Verify BNQ certification and OPC registration

Both are public. Memoria is certified. Cleo is registered. Most legitimate Quebec providers are. If a provider can't confirm registration, walk away.

3. Read reviews across multiple platforms

Google, Facebook, Yelp, and platform-specific funeral review sites. Look for sample size, recency, and specifics, not just star averages. Ten detailed recent reviews mean more than fifty old ones.

4. Confirm what's included vs. what's an add-on

This is where families get surprised. Ask explicitly: "Is transport from the place of death included in this quote? Are death certificates included? Is the basic urn included? Are after-hours pickups included?" Get the answers in writing.

5. Note the ownership group

Many of the recognizable Quebec funeral brands now share a parent. Athos owns Memoria, Urgel Bourgie, and Lépine Cloutier. Other groups own others. Ownership doesn't make a provider better or worse, but it explains why two "different" funeral homes sometimes quote suspiciously similar packages. Knowing who owns whom is useful context.

Frequently asked questions

Who owns Memoria?

Memoria is part of Athos Services Commémoratifs, the largest funeral group in Quebec. Athos was acquired by Toronto-based private-equity firm TorQuest Partners on October 16, 2024. Day-to-day operations at Memoria's complexes have not changed; the brand, staff, and locations remain the same.

How much does Memoria charge for direct cremation?

Memoria does not publish cremation pricing online. Reported third-party data places direct cremation at Memoria around $1,800–$2,500+ all-in, with cremation-with-services running $4,500–$8,000+. Always confirm in writing with the provider before signing.

Is Memoria part of a chain?

Yes, Memoria is one of three flagship brands under Athos Services Commémoratifs, alongside Urgel Bourgie and Lépine Cloutier. The Athos network operates 28 funeral complexes and 5 cemetery gardens province-wide.

Is Memoria BNQ-certified?

Yes. Memoria operates under Bureau de normalisation du Québec standards and is registered with the Office de la protection du consommateur (OPC), the Quebec funeral-contract regulator. Both are baseline credibility checks for any Quebec funeral provider.

Does Memoria publish prices online?

No. Memoria's website lists service categories but does not publish dollar figures for cremation. To get a number, you book a consultation, call, or request a quote. Cleo does publish its all-inclusive direct cremation price on the direct cremation page.

What's the difference between direct cremation and cremation with services?

Direct cremation is cremation only, no memorial through the funeral home. The provider transports your loved one, files the paperwork, carries out the cremation, and returns the ashes to you. Any memorial happens later, separately, on your own terms. Cremation with services is a memorial held at the funeral home before the cremation, typically with the body present, similar to a traditional funeral but with cremation instead of burial as the final disposition. The price difference is significant: $1,800–$2,500 vs. $4,500–$8,000+ in Memoria's reported ranges.

Can I pre-arrange with Memoria without paying upfront?

Memoria offers pre-arrangement plans, including some without upfront payment. Cleo offers pre-planning as well. Both are governed by Quebec's Loi sur les arrangements funéraires et de sépulture, which requires itemized disclosure for pre-need contracts. For a closer look at when prepayment makes sense and when it doesn't, see are prepaid funerals in Canada worth it?

Choosing the path that fits

Memoria has been part of Montreal funeral service for more than 80 years. Its complexes are architectural landmarks. Its team handles thousands of services every year, and many Montreal families rightly feel that a Memoria service is the right send-off for their parent or partner. That's a legitimate, considered choice.

Cleo offers a different thing: direct cremation, one fixed and published price, and a memorial held later on your own terms. For a family who wants exactly that, the decision is straightforward. For a family who wants a designed memorial space, an on-site ceremony, or cemetery integration, Memoria fits where Cleo can't.

When comparing Memoria's cremation cost against Cleo's fixed, all-inclusive price, the wrong move is choosing without a written quote in your hand. The right move, at any provider, is to ask for the itemized number, take a breath, and decide based on what the quote actually covers, not the brand on the building.

If direct cremation sounds like the path your family wants, you can see Cleo's all-inclusive pricing on our website right now, or read about our cremation services in Montreal. When you're ready to talk, we're here 24 hours a day, in French and English. One call is all it takes.

Call Cleo 24/7: (438) 817-1770