Fighting Fire with Intelligence: How Edmonton’s AltaML Is Helping Alberta Predict and Prevent Wildfires in a Warming World

Wildfire in Canada is no longer just a seasonal concern—it’s a structural one. Drier springs, hotter days, and shifting wind patterns are colliding with decades of fuel buildup to create extreme, fast-moving fires with little historical precedent. Governments need better tools to stay ahead of what’s coming.

In Alberta, one of those tools has been built by AltaML. Headquartered in Edmonton and co-led by Nicole and Cory Janssen, AltaML is a Canadian artificial intelligence (AI) company focused on infusing AI into traditional industries to solve practical problems. Through a long-term partnership with the Government of Alberta (GoA), AltaML has developed a machine-learning (ML) model that helps predict the next-day probability of wildfire ignition across the province. The goal: smarter staging of resources and earlier intervention.

The model uses years of wildfire records combined with real-time data on weather, vegetation, and human activity. It currently achieves 80 percent accuracy in predicting fire starts—a number that translates into real-world impact. Alberta estimates the model saves $2 to $5 million annually in averted standby costs alone, while helping duty officers direct helicopters, crews, and equipment to the right places at the right time.

“In a world where climate volatility is the new normal, governments need tools that are adaptive and rooted in their local realities,” says Nicole Janssen, Co-CEO of AltaML. “AI gives us the ability to learn from the past and act faster in the future. That’s what resilience looks like.”

AltaML’s wildfire model is just one of more than a dozen AI tools it’s developed with Alberta’s public service. Other projects include optimizing cancer clinic appointments, forecasting hospital staffing, and smarter school planning to increase provincial utilization rates. All are designed not as flashy pilots, but as embedded capabilities built in partnership with government users.

There’s also a bigger message here: the value of choosing a homegrown AI firm. By working with AltaML, Alberta is keeping sensitive data under domestic control, developing local talent, and ensuring that taxpayer-funded innovation delivers public, not private, benefit.

As the 2025 fire season reminds us, the stakes are only getting higher. And for Canada to adapt, it must be able to act quickly, intelligently, and independently. AltaML is showing how Canadian AI companies can be essential partners in that mission—transforming data into action, and action into safety.

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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.