Staffing Shortages Are Forcing Bow Valley Businesses to Cut Back, or Close Entirely

After struggling to find enough employees to keep her Canmore store operational, Charisma Collective owner Sharon Gerrard says the business is closing.

“We don’t have enough staff, and now we’re closing,” Gerrard told Bow Valley Insider.

While there are several factors behind the decision, Gerrard said staffing stands above the rest.

“One of the reasons we are closing, I mean, it is the number one reason, is that we are unable to find [staff],” Gerrard said. “It’s not just anybody, right? For a specialized store, you need someone who has a bit of experience, has a lot of energy and can stand all day.”

Her experience comes as Bow Valley employers compete for workers despite demand for employees remaining high.

The Job Resource Centre recorded 1,822 job openings between Nov. 1, 2025 and Apr. 30, 2026, a 58 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. 

The Spring Labour Market Review cites a lack of accessible housing and changes to immigration levels were creating a “natural ceiling for workforce expansion.”

Gerrard has experienced similar pressures firsthand.

“We had a really excellent temporary worker, but her work permit got pulled, so she had to leave.”

 “I mean, two of our staff left because of the rent costs in town. They moved to Calgary.”

Retail presents another challenge because of what businesses can afford to pay relative to the cost of living in Canmore.

“Retail, of course, is not a high-paid job, so it's not as if we can attract people who can actually afford to live in town,” continued Gerrard.

Housing has repeatedly surfaced as one of the Bow Valley's biggest barriers to recruiting and retaining workers though previous reporting found that only 16 percent of Canmore job postings included staff housing in 2024.

The challenge isn't limited to businesses that are closing.

Valbella Gourmet Foods president Jeff van Rotz said the company made it through a busy summer in a stable position, but staffing pressures contributed to its decision to close its food truck earlier than planned for the season.

“We were never in some sort of dire situation,” van Rotz clarified. “With a really busy summer, you need a good amount of staff to run things smoothly.”

Instead of continuing to put employees into the truck, the company decided to concentrate its workforce on its core operations.

“We're putting a lot of time into a food truck when the core of our business is our deli customers and our wholesale customers, and we just want to put the focus there.”

The closure isn't permanent. Van Rotz verified that the truck is expected to reopen around late May or early June next year, as it normally would, while their deli remains open.

He believes that what helped Valbella get through the summer was a devoted group of employees.

“With a solid core team of long-term staff, we're able to weather all kinds of staffing shortages, because we have that core team there helping the new staff or going the extra mile when they need to.”

At times, however, he felt like they could still have used another employee or two.

Valbella has tried to make retention a priority through benefits including discounts, free hot lunches and staff accommodation.

“You gotta go the extra mile for staff in the Bow Valley, because if you don’t, that’s where the housing shortage and [cost of] rentals will have an effect on your ability to hold staff for the longer term,” van Rotz said.

“Luckily my parents had the foresight many years ago to make sure that we have some staff accommodation, which we now have, and that's a huge bonus for us,” van Rotz said. “So I know that's a more difficult thing to get into these days when you look at pricing in Canmore, but yeah, I mean, that's a big one.”

The experiences described by Gerrard and van Rotz come despite no shortage of jobs in the region.

The Job Resource Centre’s latest figures suggest the challenges faced in the area are less about creating employment and more about maintaining a workforce capable of filling those positions. 

According to the report, employers are shifting toward improving the “efficiency, skill, and retention of the existing resident workforce.”

For some businesses, that means using existing resources to keep employees where they are. For others, the staffing pressure is proving harder to absorb.

For Gerrard, the consequences are now much more permanent.

“We're actually closing,” she said. “And a lot of people don't even know we're closing yet - we put signs up, but I haven't even sent out an email, because we can't cope with a whole crowd of people coming, because everyone wants to talk to you and tell you how much they love this store.”