Banff Debates Whether Businesses Should Report Workforce Size To Town

Banff’s hospitality industry is pushing back against a proposed business licence question that would require employers to report workforce numbers, arguing the move could open the door to future housing-related regulations.

The debate unfolded April 28 during a Banff Governance and Finance Committee meeting reviewing the town’s business licence bylaw. Ultimately, the committee voted 4-2 against removing the proposed reporting requirement, with only Mayor Corrie DiManno and Coun. Kaylee Ram supported the amendment.

At the centre of the debate was a proposal to ask businesses to report their number of full-time-equivalent employees, commonly known as FTEs.

An FTE count combines the hours worked by full- and part-time staff into equivalent full-time positions. For example, two employees each working half-time hours would equal one full-time-equivalent employee.

The proposed change would add a question to Banff’s annual business licence renewal asking businesses how many people they employ in Banff National Park, information the town says would help it better understand future workforce housing demand.

Mike Kelly, executive director of the Banff & Lake Louise Hospitality Association (BLLHA), urged councillors to remove the proposed requirement, arguing Banff’s workforce changes too quickly for a single annual number to tell the full story.

“Even the perception that workforce size could be linked to future requirements or implications can influence investment decisions, impact business diversity and create hesitation for new entrants,” Kelly said.

Banff has struggled with workforce housing shortages for decades. The town says rental vacancy rates remain below one percent and estimates the community needs between roughly 700 and 1,000 additional homes.

Town planning director Darren Enns said Banff’s current housing rules were largely built in the early 1990s around the idea that commercial growth should help account for the housing needs created by additional workers.

Today, however, Banff has little room left for major commercial expansion. Businesses are increasingly staying open longer, serving more visitors and adding staff without physically expanding their buildings, a shift Enns said is forcing the town to rethink how it measures housing demand created by business growth.

“We’re effectively at commercial build-out,” Enns said. “So employee demand will not be driven by new floor area, but driven by other elements.”

Enns said those “other elements” include restaurants extending hours, tourism businesses increasing visitor capacity and more tourists coming to Banff overall.

Earlier this year, Banff was exploring whether business licences could eventually become part of a broader workforce housing strategy. That could include future fee structures tied to how much employee housing a business provides.

However, at the April 28 meeting, administration stressed the proposed FTE question itself would not create any immediate new fees or housing requirements.

“If you want to continue with demand management tools like required housing, you probably desire the data to make informed decisions,” Enns said. “So that's where this is coming from. It's very much a housing-driven piece of data.”

Enns said the town is trying to update the formulas it uses to estimate how much employee housing businesses should provide. He pointed to a Deloitte housing study presented to council last year that found Banff’s existing employee housing ratios may no longer reflect current workforce realities. The town says it first tried to obtain workforce information directly from industry during that review process, but could not get the detailed information it wanted.

“Our belief was that more precise data should be sourced from employers who, quite frankly, know their employee loads better than Statistics Canada does,” Enns said.

Kelly argued the business licensing system is the wrong place to collect that information.

“The labour market in Banff is super dynamic and highly fluid,” he said. “It responds to visitor demand, seasonality, immigration pathways, technology and productivity. It’s constantly adjusting.”

Kelly argued the town should address housing issues through land-use and housing policy tools rather than through the business licensing system. Additionally, Kelly told councillors the hospitality association is already conducting what he described as a “first of its kind” workforce study looking at staffing pressures, commuting patterns and housing demand across the Bow Valley tourism economy.

The discussion exposed a divide around the council table.

DiManno and Ram argued council should first review the hospitality association’s workforce study and the town’s upcoming housing-demand management review, saying businesses still do not fully understand how the information could eventually be used.

“I think it’s harder for folks to see the vision and to understand exactly what this would mean for them,” DiManno said.

Other councillors disagreed, saying collecting data does not automatically mean new regulations are coming.

“We’re talking about data collection, not about what levers we’re going to pull,” said Coun. David Fullerton.

Coun. Marc Ledwidge described the town’s proposed reporting requirement and the hospitality association’s workforce study as “complementary,” rather than competing approaches. Coun. Barb Pelham said annual reporting could help the town track workforce trends over time.

The proposed reporting requirement will now return to council as part of the revised business licence bylaw and related fee amendments, ensuring the debate over workforce growth and housing pressures is likely to continue.