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A group of Bow Valley doctors is working to find out the true cost of living in Banff because they say too many workers are struggling to live in the expensive mountain town.
“Many people in the valley don’t make enough to have a healthy place to live,” says Dr. Vamini Selvanandan, who is part of the new advocacy group Healthy Bow Valley. “They don’t make enough to afford nutritious food.”
A few months ago, the group approached the Alberta Living Wage Network, which calculates living wages for communities across Alberta, to assemble Banff’s first living wage report.
The living wage is calculated using data about the actual cost of living in a community, including housing, food, transportation, child care and other basic expenses. The report also breaks down those costs, showing what’s driving the local cost of living.
The calculation is updated each year, and workplaces can choose to become certified living wage employers by paying their workers at least that amount.
The Banff living wage report is expected to be released in November.
Alison Van Dyke, the co-ordinator of the Alberta Living Wage Network, says a living wage report can help municipalities, non-profits and businesses figure out where the gaps are and make policy changes to ease financial pressures.
Her organization currently calculates the living wage for 21 communities in Alberta, including another nearby mountain town: Jasper. Its 2026 living wage is $31.80 per hour.
She says paying a living wage benefits communities.
“It brings vibrancy to a community by enabling people that live and work there to have full and productive lives and not be worrying about their finances all of the time,” she says.
Many Banff workers are struggling, says advocacy group
The campaign comes as a new report presented to Banff town council, based on 2023 tax filing data, highlights the relatively low incomes of many people living in the community. It found about half of Banff tax filers earned $40,000 or less a year.
It also found Banff has the lowest median income among several comparable mountain resort communities, including Whistler, Jasper, Canmore and Fernie.
Selvanandan says low income takes a toll on people’s health and ultimately on local businesses.
“Every public health indicator shows that those who don’t make enough income suffer from — you name it. Really, any physical or mental disease, the rates are higher if you don’t make enough money,” she says.
Selvanandan has treated patients in the Bow Valley for 25 years. She says living costs have always been more expensive in Banff, but it’s gotten worse over the past few years.
As part of its outreach, Healthy Bow Valley has hosted webinars for local non-profits and businesses to explain how living wages work.
She hopes that top businesses in Banff will take the lead and sign on to be living wage employers.
The timing is especially important, Selvanandan says, because many Bow Valley businesses say they’re struggling to hire staff.
“Particularly this year, there’s less immigration and foreign workers coming into the valley, and so they need to be competitive to attract workers,” she says.
Moraine Lake Bus Company and Lake Louise Shuttle Company owner Jesse Kitteridge says he doesn’t face the same challenges as other businesses in the Bow Valley.
His company is one of the only businesses in the Bow Valley that is a certified living wage employer. The starting wage for a bus driver at his company is about $31 an hour, he says, while more experienced drivers can earn up to $53 an hour, along with bonuses.
“We don’t have a hiring problem,” he says.
“We have close to a 95 per cent staff retention rate in a town that has an average much lower than that.”
Investing in workers has resulted in lower turnover, he says, and better customer service.
“I would much rather have a thriving team with happy and valued employees than a slightly larger income and a fancier car but with unhappy, struggling employees,” Kitteridge says.
Healthy Bow Valley plans to keep providing information over the next few months on how the living wage can help make the community stronger. The group also plans to host a public information session this fall before Banff’s first living wage calculation is released.
“I would really love to see the business community embrace this as not just something to do for their employees, but something that will make them a competitive and successful business,” Selvanandan says.
