‘It’s catastrophic — it’s not just for us but for many, many businesses’
A growing number of employers in Alberta’s Bow Valley are warning they may not have enough staff to get through the upcoming tourism season, as hiring efforts outpace the supply of available workers in Banff, Canmore and Kananaskis.
Organisers of recent job fairs say interest from businesses has never been higher, even as application numbers from prospective employees lag those of previous years, according to a report in the Calgary Herald. Employers are scrambling to secure people for frontline roles before visitors arrive in peak numbers.
Katie Dolson, employer services co‑ordinator with the Bow Valley Job Resource Centre, said this year’s applicant pool is noticeably thinner. “Employers have indicated that compared to previous years, application numbers have been down, so it’s definitely been a concern,” she said.
Job fairs and staffing gap
Tourism and hospitality operators across the Bow Valley are recruiting for housekeeping, food and beverage, sales, labour and outdoor positions, with many looking to expand headcount compared with pre‑pandemic summers. Dolson told the Calgary Herald that “increased tourism over the past two years has been steady, and some employers have doubled their staffing for the busy season.”
Despite that effort, many businesses say they are struggling to attract enough candidates to cover rosters. Dolson said operators are “operating at full capacity and wanting to accommodate as many visitors as possible,” creating pressure to fill hundreds of vacancies before the unofficial start of the season.
Recent recruitment events have underlined how demand for workers now far exceeds supply. A Bow Valley job fair held in Banff earlier this year sought roughly 600 staff across multiple employers, the Calgary Herald reported.
At a follow‑up job fair in Canmore, covering Banff and Kananaskis, all 32 employer booths were claimed and organisers created a waiting list for additional businesses hoping to participate. Collectively, those employers were looking to fill more than 500 roles, from entry‑level service jobs to supervisory positions.
By comparison, the last Canmore job fair two years ago drew only 20 employers and had no waiting list. “Employers are reaching out more and earlier than before, and there are employers who have never reached out before,” Dolson told the Calgary Herald.
About 230,000 jobs in the tourism sector could go unfilled by 2030 due to a lack of workers, according to a previous report from the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council (CTHRC).
Reliance on foreign workers under pressure
The Bow Valley has traditionally leaned on young workers from overseas to plug gaps in the local labour market. Dolson told the Calgary Herald that the region “usually see[s] an uptick from Australia and the U.K. sort of around April and May,” as international staff arrive for the summer.
This year, employers say they are watching closely to see whether that influx materialises in time, amid shifting federal rules for temporary foreign workers. Any shortfall in international hiring would further intensify competition for local candidates.
Grizzly Paw Brewing Co., which operates four locations in the area, is one employer feeling that strain. Director of people and culture Brande White told the Calgary Herald that changes to temporary foreign worker rules have complicated efforts to keep positions filled. “It’s catastrophic — it’s not just for us but for many, many businesses,” White said. “From January to June I should be on anxiety medication (due to recruitment pressures) — it’s just frantic.”
Tourism businesses in Banff and Canmore have previously warned of severe staffing shortages ahead of the summer season, citing a lack of affordable housing and tighter rules on foreign workers as major barriers to recruitment and retention, according to a report. Despite interest from international and domestic candidates, employers say they cannot translate that interest into stable hires without affordable accommodation, CTV News previously wrote.
Immigration changes
Recently, the Alberta government introduced Bill 26, the Immigration Oversight Act. The legislation would create a provincial registry for employers using federal temporary foreign worker (TFW) programs, introduce licensing for immigration consultants and foreign worker recruiters, and expand enforcement powers to target fraud, illegal fees and worker exploitation.
The Alberta government presented the bill as a response to what it calls the federal government’s “loss of control over immigration,” which it links to “unsustainable population growth, pressure on public services and cases of abuse by bad actors.” However, Alberta employers have warned that proposed provincial immigration changes could add red tape and delay hiring in sectors already struggling with labour shortages.
