Wildfire Innovation in the Central Okanagan

COEDC News July 3, 2025

From Risk to Resilience: Wildfires and the Economy

Over the past two decades, the Central Okanagan has faced numerous large-scale wildfires, building a deep understanding of the urgency and complexity of this growing challenge. As wildfire risks escalate—not just locally, but across the province and beyond—the call for innovative, collaborative solutions has never been clearer. Strengthening wildfire resilience isn’t just about protecting our natural landscapes; it’s also about securing the region’s economic future and the well-being of our communities.

The ripple effects of wildfires extend far beyond the forest edge—impacting every sector from tourism and agriculture to manufacturing and technology. These risks drive the need for business continuity planning and influence business investment decisions, disrupt supply chains, and challenge efforts to attract and retain talent.

Recognizing the urgency of this issue, the Central Okanagan Economic Development Commission (COEDC) dedicated its June Advisory Committee meeting to exploring wildfire innovation, climate adaptation, advanced technologies, and sustainable land management.

Wildfire Innovation Panel: Bridging Climate Resilience and Economic Opportunity

As a region that has experienced multiple large-scale emergencies, the Central Okanagan is uniquely positioned with the talent, ecosystem, and natural environment to grow wildfire solutions and position the region as a leader in climate resiliency. The COEDC brought together a diverse group for the Wildfire Innovation Panel, to ensure a wide range of perspectives, disciplines, and lived experiences were represented in shaping bold, collaborative solutions.

Breagh Kobayashi, Silviculture Supervisor at Ntityix Resources LP, emphasized the vital role of Indigenous leadership in wildfire mitigation. She utilizes the indigenous 7 generation plan as a guideline for reforestation and fuel mitigation management. She recommends building partnerships and engaging indigenous people to lead mitigation strategies.

Mathieu Bourbonnais, Ph.D., Co-Director of the UBC Centre for Wildfire Coexistence, shared how his team uses technological monitoring to study the benefits of allowing fire to enhance forest resiliency balanced with protection for co-existence. Through a partnership with UBC Okanagan and the provincial wildfire handheld camera network, they are deploying low-cost weather stations to monitor and predict fire behavior. With only 261 stations across the province, Mathieu emphasized the urgent need to expand infrastructure and better integrate it with lab work and proactive risk mitigation.

Brittany Courvoisier-Nicol, Co-Founder and Head of Product at CRWN.ai, works with utilities using tech to “listen” to powerline transmissions to detect faults before they spark fires. Her technology detects cracking insulators—a leading cause of transmission line fires, responsible for 70% of ignitions—and provides a proactive solution for wildfire prevention. Utilities currently inspect lines only every 8 years and must modernize their technology and collaborate with innovators. Fire-related emissions should be included in greenhouse gas funding criteria to recognize innovations that reduce them. Brittany is seeking introductions to utility CEOs in BC as well as utility companies outside of BC.

Katie Baer, Operations Coordinator at Fireswarm Solutions, is deploying ultra heavy-lift drones for remote fire detection and suppression. With a Special Flight Operations Certificate from Transport Canada, Fireswarm is ready to expand operations. Challenges Fireswarm is facing include jurisdiction specific regulations making market entry cumbersome and the lead time in manufacturing these heavy-lift drones is slow, both major hurdles in scalability.  She is actively seeking endorsement from BC Wildfire, specifically inclusion in the “redbook”, and building provincial government connections to advance the initiative.

Dennis Craig, Assistant Fire Chief of Mitigation & Prevention for the City of Kelowna, highlighted how his team is combining AI, smoke sensors, and camera systems—alongside human reports—to quickly detect smoke and improve wildfire response. His department focuses on behavior change education through FireSmart initiatives and is pushing for updates to the Official Community Plan (OCP) to reflect climate realities and address the entire community, not just the wildland-urban interface. He emphasized the need for inter-community collaboration on technology testing, application, and best practices. Dennis also advocates for stronger policies to hold builders and planners accountable for development locations and the use of fire-resilient materials.

Taking Action: Building a Wildfire Innovation Ecosystem

The COEDC sees wildfire innovation as a region-wide, collaborative effort. Stories from the panel highlighted the power of cross-sector partnerships: Breagh Kobayashi called for Indigenous-led mitigation; Mathieu Bourbonnais showed how research supports community safety, resiliency and co-existence; Brittany Courvoisier-Nicol and Katie Baer introduced technologies that need support to scale; and Dennis Craig pushed for policy reform and smarter development. Together, these efforts form the backbone of a wildfire innovation ecosystem—one that not only enhances community safety but also drives sustainable economic growth and positions the Central Okanagan as a leader in climate resilience.

Advancing Strategic Directions through Wildfire Innovation

June’s Advisory Committee topic, Wildfire Innovation, aligns closely with all four strategic directions outlined in the COEDC Strategy 2025–2030: Roadmap to Resiliency. By convening diverse voices—from Indigenous leaders and researchers to tech entrepreneurs and emergency responders—we are fostering economic resiliency in the face of climate disruption. The technologies and partnerships highlighted in this session reflect the region’s capacity to promote innovation, while also creating new career pathways and opportunities to grow export-focused industries.

As we continue to build a resilient and sustainable economy, wildfire innovation presents a significant opportunity for the Central Okanagan—to lead in climate adaptation, drive technology development, and foster cross-sector collaboration.

The COEDC Advisory Committee, a 45-member group of industry leaders, community shapers, and elected officials, meets monthly to share information, collaborate, and work together towards sustainable economic growth.

For COEDC Advisory Committee meeting minutes click here.