Illegal Tourist Home Investigations in Canmore Surge Over 4,000% Since 2023

The number of illegal tourist homes under investigation by the Town of Canmore’s Municipal Enforcement and Planning department has increased by more than 4,000% since 2023, coinciding with the Town’s acceptance of over $1.1 million in federal funding aimed at cracking down on short-term rental violations.

In 2025, Municipal Enforcement opened 87 investigations into illegal tourist homes, up from 17 in 2024 and two cases in 2023.

To support its enforcement efforts, the Town of Canmore was awarded $1,109,885 through the federal government’s Short-Term Rental Enforcement Fund (STREF), a one-time grant administered by Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2027.

The funding is intended for municipalities that have strong, enforceable short-term rental regulations in place, which Canmore qualifies for due to its zoning restrictions, licensing requirements, and enforcement mechanisms governing tourist homes.

“The Short-Term Rental Enforcement Fund is a grant provided by Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada to help municipalities limit the amount of illegal short-term rentals or tourist homes that are taking away units from the long-term housing market,” said Caitlin Miller, the Town of Canmore’s manager of protective services and director of emergency management.

To date, the Town has used the funding to expand enforcement staffing, implement monitoring software, conduct inspections, cover legal costs, support public information initiatives and research best practices.

“The Town of Canmore is spending the grant funding on additional staff to support enforcement activities, software to help identify short term rentals and efficiently find information for compliance, legal costs of serving tickets and attending court, inspections, public information, and research and development of best practices and evaluations,” said Miller.

In 2025, enforcement officers issued nine violation tickets, 12 warnings and 11 stop orders, with the stop orders requiring properties to cease operations. Most ongoing investigations involve unlicensed operations or failure to display a valid business licence number, a requirement under the Town’s bylaw since 2024.

“Currently, there are a lot of files related to unlicensed operations and licenses not being on display,” said Miller. “This is because of the changes to the bylaw.”

Much of the Town’s enforcement follows an education-based method, with officers reminding property owners of bylaw requirements before escalating enforcement action.

“An compliance through education and enforcement approach is being taken, with municipal enforcement officers reminding property owners of the requirements of the bylaw before moving to further enforcement action,” said Miller.

Although enforcement follows an education-first approach, whether a case results in a warning, ticket or stop order is determined by the individual enforcement officer based on multiple factors.

“There are a number of different factors that lead to the type of enforcement action and it is the Municipal Enforcement Officers' discretion that determines what type of action will be taken. There is no specific standard as each case is unique in the evidence it presents, the history of the unit, and factors of community interest,” said Miller.

Most complaints originate in the Three Sisters Mountain Village neighbourhood, an area where Three Sisters Mountain Village Properties Ltd. has been developing between 900 and 1,300 tourist homes since project approval in 2023. However, most enforcement actions occur in Downtown/South Canmore.

“While most complaints originate in Three Sisters Mountain Village, they do not result in enforcement action for a number of reasons, including no infraction found or not enough evidence to support the complaint,” said Miller. “Most complaints Downtown/South Canmore result in an investigation demonstrating non-compliance and enforcement action following.”

The Town has also implemented artificial intelligence monitoring software from Granicus, a U.S.-based government technology company. The software monitors whether properties comply with zoning and licensing rules and helps identify potential violations. It currently costs the Town approximately $5,000 annually, funded through the STREF grant.

“Granicus is a software that identifies, monitors, and helps regulate short-term rental listing sites by using AI to automate compliance and identify advertisements across over 60 different websites that are not within permitted zones,” said Miller.

In addition to software monitoring, enforcement officers identify potentially illegal sites by responding to resident complaints, cross-referencing business licences and drawing on prior knowledge.

“Municipal Enforcement also follows up on complaints and cross-references business licenses. Platform monitoring is completed by Granicus, but occasionally enforcement officers will come across information on their own based on previous experience,” said Miller.

Despite the increase in enforcement activity, it remains unclear whether the number of illegal tourist homes has declined, as there is no baseline count of how many were operating or a clear measure of what proportion have been shut down.

“As we did not have a clear number of the number of illegal tourist homes operating, we cannot determine if the number has decreased and by how much,” said Miller.

The absence of this data makes it difficult to assess how effective the enhanced enforcement measures have been in returning units to the long-term housing market or how significant their impact will be on the local housing supply moving forward.