When Every Second Counts: How Edmonton’s Samdesk is Shaping the Future of Emergency Alerts in Canada

In an era of rising climate disasters and fractured public trust, one Canadian tech company is betting that better information, delivered faster, can save lives.

Samdesk, an Edmonton-based company that specializes in real-time crisis alerts, has announced a national partnership with neighbourhood platform Nextdoor. The goal: give Canadians timely, localized warnings during emergencies, whether they’re facing a wildfire, flash flood, or violent event.

It couldn’t come at a more urgent time. A recent survey conducted by the Angus Reid Forum found that nearly one in four Canadians say they were directly affected by extreme weather in the past year. Despite that, confidence in Canada’s emergency alerting systems remains shaky. Just 23 percent of Canadians feel “very confident” they would be promptly informed about an emergency in their own neighbourhood.

“Timely, accurate information saves lives,” said James Neufeld, founder and CEO of samdesk. “That’s why we’re proud to power Nextdoor’s new alert system in Canada. From wildfires in British Columbia to flash floods in Ontario, our real-time crisis alerts help neighbours stay safe, informed, and ready to help.” Samdesk is not new to this work. Its platform ingests millions of data points from public sources in real-time. Using proprietary AI and natural language processing, samdesk detects anomalies and verifies incidents before pushing alerts to users in the affected region. The company already powers crisis detection and alerts for several governments, airlines, and Fortune 500 clients. This is the first time it’s delivering alerts directly to everyday Canadians at a neighbourhood level.

The collaboration with Nextdoor focuses on two things: speed and trust. When samdesk detects a credible emergency, users on Nextdoor in the impacted area will receive an alert within seconds. These alerts are written in plain language, include location-specific details, and are verified by samdesk’s analysts. Crucially, they are not reliant on traditional top-down systems, which have come under scrutiny in the wake of several delayed or misdirected alerts in recent years.

“People want to know what’s happening now, where they live—not six hours later from a press release,” said Neufeld. “We built samdesk to close that gap.”

Canada’s emergency alerting system, known as Alert Ready, has struggled to keep pace with the volume and variety of threats now facing Canadian communities. While it plays a critical role in issuing province-wide alerts, it is not designed for high-frequency, localized updates. Samdesk’s model complements rather than replaces that system by focusing on hyper-local, verified, real-time information.The partnership with Nextdoor provides an immediate audience. More than 4 million Canadians use the platform to connect with others in their neighbourhoods. Embedding samdesk’s alerts directly into this existing network reduces friction and ensures that vital information doesn’t get lost in noise.

There’s also a trust gap to address. The same Angus Reid survey found that while 91 percent of Canadians want urgent updates about natural disasters, fewer than half believe their current sources are reliable. That erosion of trust is a problem samdesk is trying to solve with verified, transparent, and rapid alerts that are free from political spin or bureaucratic delay.

For Neufeld, the mission is personal as well as professional. Growing up in Alberta, he saw first-hand the damage that comes when emergency response fails to reach people in time. In 2016, the Fort McMurray wildfire forced over 80,000 people from their homes. More recently, wildfires in Manitoba, northern Ontario, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, northern British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador have highlighted the growing risk of climate-driven emergencies in rural and remote regions, where connectivity and communication remain challenging.

The Nextdoor partnership is just the beginning. Samdesk says it is in talks with other platforms and municipalities across the country, with a vision to build a national layer of real-time crisis intelligence that citizens can trust. “When people feel informed, they make better decisions,” said Neufeld. “This isn’t about panic. It’s about preparedness.” Canada’s climate reality is changing. Samdesk wants to make sure the country’s emergency information systems keep up.

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This article is part of CCI’s new “By Canadian Innovators” series, which showcases how members of the Council of Canadian Innovators work with homegrown companies to fuel their growth and make Canada more prosperous. Each story in this series highlights the unique contributions of these companies to building a more prosperous, innovation-driven economy. To learn more about the companies CCI works with to build a more prosperous Canada, visit our member directory.