Could oil patch slowdown solve Banff’s staffing issues?

Banff Avenue on January 15, 2015

Several hotel and retail store owners in Banff believe their cyclical employee shortages, prompted by a revolving door of seasonal foreign staff, could be solved by an influx of recently, or soon to be, laid off oil patch workers.

Torsten Merker, the owner of the King Edward Hotel and the International Hostel in the Banff townsite, has struggled to maintain his staff of roughly 16 employees. The majority of his workers stay for three to four months before moving on, leaving Merker to hire and train new staff to fill the vacated roles. Merker says his staffing woes inhibit the growth of his business.

While there’s no shortage of job opportunities in Banff, Merker admits salaries fall short of what the oil patch offered during the boom days but the quality of life is exceptional.

“A slowdown in the economy for us is a normalization,” said Merker. “There’s still a lot of jobs out there. I don't really see that we're going to go into a recession just because we're dying for staff out here.”

January is low season for Banff but the town is preparing for a massive influx of international tourists this summer given the weak Canadian dollar and the low cost of gasoline.

“It makes it a little bit more cost effective to come to Canada,” said Ossi Treutler, owner of Freya’s Jewellery in Banff's Clock Tower Mall. “We’re not exactly the cheapest country to come to but we are a beautiful, safe country and who doesn’t want to come to Banff and the Canadian Rockies.”

Restrictions to the Temporary Foreign Worker program have hurt a number of Banff business owners and there's growing concern over potential government cuts to the Working Holiday Visa program.

With files from CTV's Kevin Fleming