Half of Banff Tax Filers Earned Less Than $40K as Affordability Pressures Persist

Half of Banff residents who filed taxes in 2023 earned less than $40,000 a year, according to new municipal data that suggests affordability remains a challenge even as the town's population rebounds from the pandemic.

A report presented to Banff's Governance and Finance Committee on June 9 found the number of people captured in Banff's tax-filer data rose 12.4% to 9,320 in 2023, a trend administration says suggests the community has recovered from pandemic-era population losses.

At the same time, nearly one-quarter of Banff tax filers, fell below Statistics Canada's low-income measure, while the town continued to report the lowest median incomes among comparable mountain communities including Canmore, Jasper, Whistler, Fernie and Revelstoke.

"Ultimately what we're seeing here is full recovery from the impacts noted during the pandemic," said Alison Gerrits, Banff's director of community services.

The median income for Banff tax filers was $39,770 in 2023, with nearly three-quarters earning less than $60,000 a year. Banff also had the lowest median family income among the mountain communities included in the comparison. While median family income rose 4.1% to $108,530 in 2023, it remained lower than every other community examined.

"We remain the community with the highest percentage of tax filers with incomes in this range," said Gerrits.

Gerrits said low-income rates have largely returned to pre-pandemic levels after the temporary effects of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), which lifted many lower-income earners above Statistics Canada's low-income threshold during 2020 and 2021.

"In 22 and 23, Banff has basically reverted back to the prevalence of individual tax filers with low incomes that it saw pre-2020," she said.

To help illustrate local affordability challenges, administration included a new analysis based on the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's guideline that households should spend no more than 30% of their income on housing. The analysis found a single renter would need to earn about $31.46 per hour to afford an average one-bedroom apartment while staying within that benchmark. A person renting a bachelor suite would need to earn roughly $21.96 per hour, while a single person renting a four-bedroom home alone would need to earn about $101.71 per hour.

By comparison, Alberta government data shows the Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House economic region recorded the province's lowest average hourly wage in 2023 at $26.96 per hour.

Gerrits said the calculations were intended to demonstrate the wide range of housing situations in Banff, where many residents rely on partners, roommates or other shared living arrangements to make housing more affordable.

"The purpose ultimately of providing this information is just to demonstrate the complexity of the affordability discussion," she said.

The findings also informed the Town's approach to affordable housing initiatives. Gerrits said the 50 Wolf Street affordable housing project will include eight deeply affordable studio units supported through provincial funding, expanding eligibility to lower-income residents who may not have qualified under earlier affordable housing initiatives.

Asked about the implications of the findings, Gerrits said the income data supports council's existing approach to housing affordability and broader affordability initiatives.

"The path council has taken and the decisions that council has made with respect to affordability and leaning into universal affordability programs in the community make complete sense and are absolutely justified by the income data that we have," she said.