When Banff council met in late September, councillors were told the town would finish the year nearly on budget, with a small $79,000 surplus. But one line item stood out. Fines revenue was down by $130,000.

The explanation seemed straightforward at first. “We would obviously enforce more if we had the officers at full strength,” said Town Manager Kelly Gibson during the meeting. “So that is the reason for the shortfall we’re identifying this year. It’s staffing levels.”

Councillor Grant Pedigree pressed for clarification. “So we see fines are significantly down. Is that a connection there, or are we not needing to enforce after hours? Does it mean we’re enforcing enough?”

Gibson confirmed the connection between enforcement and staffing. “If the officers aren’t there, they can’t enforce to that same level.”

Only Part of the Picture

According to Banff RCMP Staff Sgt. Mike Buxton-Carr, the connection between police staffing and fine revenue is real but overstated.

“From discussion with municipal officials, it is my understanding that the decrease of $130,000 is inclusive of revenue associated to parking fines and traffic violation fines issued by Town of Banff Municipal Enforcement and Banff RCMP, with RCMP revenue being approximately $30,000 below projections,” he said in written responses to Bow Valley Insider.

If that figure is accurate, it implies roughly $100,000 of the shortfall relates to municipal enforcement, not RCMP-issued tickets.

Still, Banff’s RCMP detachment is operating with fewer front-line officers than intended.

A 20 Percent Resource Shortage

“Banff Detachment has twenty police officer positions, sixteen on our municipal roster and four on our provincial roster,” Buxton-Carr said. “Nineteen of twenty positions are presently encumbered. One position has been vacant since July 1, 2025, and I anticipate that position being filled on November 15.”

But even with nearly all positions filled, he said the detachment has been running at an effective 20 percent resource shortage this year. “One of Banff Detachment’s positions is occupied by an employee who has been suspended from duty since October 2022. Three additional positions are occupied by employees who are unable to perform operational duties due to medical leave.”

The result is fewer officers available for day-to-day policing, particularly proactive patrols.

“Pro-active policing is greatly impacted by the availability of resources,” he said. “We anticipate exceeding our current level of traffic enforcement when our resources return to front line duty.”

Less Overtime, Fewer Patrols

Buxton-Carr emphasized that schedules haven’t been formally reduced, but the effect is felt in how officers spend their time.

“We have not had to adjust our patrol schedule nor reduce the scale of our operations due to resource challenges,” he said. “However, resource shortages typically impact the amount of overtime expended and time spent by front-line officers performing proactive versus reactive duties.”

That subtle shift matters in a community where road safety and tourism traffic are constant concerns.

Road safety has been a stated priority of the detachment, yet less available overtime means fewer targeted operations. The detachment has continued to focus on impaired driving and collision response but has had to balance that against a steady stream of calls for service, particularly in the summer months.

“An increase in visitation in summer increases the demand for police services,” Buxton-Carr said. “Time spent responding to calls for service and conducting investigations detracts from the time available to officers for pro-active enforcement operations.”

Housing and High Costs Make Recruitment Harder

The staffing shortage isn’t due to recruitment failures alone. The issue, Town officials say, is structural.

“The cost of living and the lack of available staff housing is the only impediment to recruitment of personnel to Banff Detachment,” Buxton-Carr said.

Town Communications Director Jason Darrah echoed the same concern. “As with all hiring by the Town and other Banff employers, the biggest challenge in recruitment to Banff is housing. It is expensive and hard to find, and the size of property for cost is considerably different than in other rural jurisdictions,” Darrah said. “In addition, policing agencies everywhere are struggling with recruitment.”

Despite those challenges, Buxton-Carr said the detachment recruited three officers this year to replace members who were transferring out of the community. (Municipal documents note the three positions were filled as of September 2024.)

Loss of Provincial Traffic Officers

Another piece of the enforcement puzzle is the provincial traffic team. Banff once had four provincially funded RCMP officers who focused largely on highway and moving-violation enforcement.

Darrah confirmed that only one of those positions remains filled. “Banff doesn’t have a provincial enforcement team of four working out of the office anymore. These are officers funded by the Province, and their primary responsibility is usually traffic enforcement. So highway enforcement is lower than in years past,” he said.

That reduction has implications far beyond the town boundary, as fewer officers on the Trans-Canada Highway and surrounding routes means fewer opportunities for traffic stops, impaired-driving interdictions, and speed enforcement.

The Enforcement Ripple

Back at Town Hall, councillors have repeatedly voiced concern about how staff vacancies ripple through the system.

“If we have a number of vacancies, are we actually short in some departments of the work? Is it taxing others?” Councillor Pedigree asked during the September meeting.

Gibson acknowledged the strain. “When we have vacancies in areas there is an impact on operations,” he said. “We might have to modify and shuffle priorities around to get the job done.”

That shuffling applies not only to municipal departments but to policing as well.

When RCMP resources are thin, Town Municipal Enforcement focuses on bylaw and parking, while police handle Criminal Code and provincial matters.

The Town’s 2024 Service Review documents confirm that “municipal positions that have been subject to soft vacancies greater than 30 days are not billed directly to the municipality,” a technical note that mirrors Buxton-Carr’s description of suspended or medically restricted members.

Clarifying the $130,000 Gap

When Bow Valley Insider followed up with Buxton-Carr after the council meeting, he reiterated that the RCMP’s portion of the fine shortfall is about $30,000. “That is my understanding,” he said. “However, I do not have access to the data. I have been told that fine revenue from RCMP enforcement is $30,000 below projections and that parking and violation ticket fine revenue generated by Banff bylaw or municipal enforcement accounts for the remainder.”

This suggests that while the Town’s explanation of “RCMP staffing shortages” wasn’t wrong, the decline is a blend of police resource limitations, fewer provincial highway officers, and lower municipal fine volumes.

Crime Down, Enforcement Still a Priority

Despite the staffing pressures, Buxton-Carr said public safety has not suffered.

“I would assure the public that, despite our resource level being reduced, the Banff RCMP have been able to provide sufficient resources to maintain public safety and to address our priority issues of drug trafficking and road safety,” he said. “Banff’s crime rate and crime severity have decreased in the past several years.”

In 2025, the detachment seized illicit drugs valued at more than $70,000, along with $24,000 in cash and two offence-related vehicles. “Banff Detachment is on track to increase the number of impaired driving sanctions and traffic enforcement actions in 2025 as compared to 2024,” he added.

The Town’s own data supports that trend. The Crime Severity Index for Banff fell from 118.4 in 2022 to 65.2 in 2023.

The Road Ahead

Buxton-Carr expects his detachment to return to full strength by mid-November, though uncertainty remains for the four members on medical or disciplinary leave. “I expect to maintain a full complement of officers on strength into 2026, however cannot forecast the outcome of the positions subject to medical leave or suspension,” he said.

For now, Banff’s police and municipal officials appear aligned on one point: the town’s enforcement challenges are as much about housing and provincial funding as they are about staffing.

As Gibson told councillors, “When we have vacancies, there is an impact on operations.”

In Banff, those operations happen on some of the busiest streets in Canada’s national parks system.