Banff businesses struggle with staffing shortages as tourists return

Walk Banff Avenue and store after store has signs looking for help.

"Anyone you get has got six different offers from six different places," said Tim Smuin, manager at Rocky Mountain Chocolates. "It's really hard. We've tried changing our wage structure, offering bonuses."

The competitive hiring market has also left some making tough decisions in their daily operations.

 "Thankfully we didn't have to close at all, just some shortened hours, and we are still hiring and we are struggling," said Rae-Anne Larkin, manager of Spirit of Christmas.

 "So say on an average day we should have five staff in the store, we are functioning on three, so that's, for a store this size, that's incredibly stressful," Larkin said.

Even the iconic Rimrock Hotel is facing challenges in filling positions ahead of the summer rush.

"We going to carry about 410, 420 staff for the summer time frame and we're sitting at about 360 right now with another 25 to come in," said Rimrock general managerTrevor Long.

"It's more challenging this year,, there's just less and less people that are interested in working in the hospitality field, we have a real struggle getting applications in for the jobs, right across Banff and Lake Louise," Long said.