One way or another, they'll find a place to bury you.

They have to, by law. Providing cemetery space is a requirement under the Municipal Government Act, which means the City of Calgary has no choice but to find a plot for your corpse, when the mortal coil finally snaps.

Of course, it'd be a lot easier to say where you'll be pushing up daisies, if the city hadn't run straight into a brick wall over cemetery space.

You could call it a crisis, but that's what it was called a decade back, when cemetery officials first raised the looming shortage with city council, warning aldermen the supply of grave plots was down to less than 20 years.

New land must be found right away, they said, or else.

They said it again with greater urgency five years later, when city council failed to heed the first warning and supply dwindled further.

The city had to have a plan in place by 2005 at the latest, or else.

Land was getting more expensive, more people were moving here, and thus dying here.

Failing to act would be a grave mistake, cemetery officials said, or words to that effect.

City council again did nothing.

And so, on the eve of 2009, Calgary finds itself with less than a decade of grave plots to go around -- optimistic guesses say there's enough for seven years worth of bodies; pessimists say five or less.

To call it crunch time would underestimate the brutal task of finding a massive supply of open land within range of Calgary, and then finding the money to pay for it.

"It's very much decision time, now," said Ald. Ric McIver, chair of the city's community services committee.

"We must make a decision to add cemetery capacity -- it'll be expensive, but it's a requirement of what we do."

Thankfully, while city council did nothing to deal with the issue despite a decade of warnings, those who oversee the burial department have been looking for a lifeline elsewhere.

Today, at the meeting McIver will chair, city cemetery boss Archie Lang will present aldermen with an idea never considered in Calgary before: A public-private graveyard partnership.

Like P3 schools, hospitals and roads, a P3 cemetery would be built and operated by a private firm, the investment paid back over time by the city.

Lang, ever diplomatic when it comes to dealing with his political bosses, says aldermen shouldn't panic yet, but it's really time to start looking at all options.

"I don't feel we're on a precipice and are about to fall off the edge, but it would be prudent to take a deep breath and look at the options," said Lang.

The P3 advantage is not having to immediately find the cash needed to buy a massive tract of land, which will also need to be landscaped.

That's a price tax-abused Calgarians wouldn't be happy to pay at the moment, even if a bargain bit of property was found.

Instead, a private partnership is a loan paid back over a long period of time, and less painful as a result.

But nothing is free, and the downside to a P3 coffin planting business is having burial costs soar.

No private firm is going to touch the cemetery business unless there's a fat profit to be made, and as Ald. McIver says, it's not fair to shoulder taxpayers with what is essentially a service.

"It shouldn't need to be a burden on the tax base," he said.

He's right, and no one would be upset if cemetery fees were tied to good planning and foresight.

But Calgarians face expensive funerals because the politicians paid to look after these things couldn't be bothered to act.

Instead of buying a large piece of property a decade ago, council turned a deaf ear, and allowed new communities and acreages to swallow up any opportunity to find land on the cheap.

So now, with no time to spare and little room to breathe, city council can choose between a private partner and commercial burial prices, or it can go it alone, punishing taxpayers for political procrastination.

Either way, Calgarians will be left holding the dirty end of the shovel.