Open for signatureElectronice-7601 · Parliament 45

National early wildfire detection program

Sign on the House of Commons website

Petitioners ask the Government of Canada to establish and fund a national early-wildfire detection program (drones, satellites, AI cameras) with provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners, and to strengthen binding GHG targets and accelerate renewable energy.

Why we would sign this petition

  • Quicker detection can reduce fire growth, lower suppression costs and improve chances of saving lives and homes.
  • Drones, satellites and AI cameras can detect ignitions within minutes, and pilot projects have shown potential for earlier response.
  • A coordinated national program would scale and standardize fragmented local pilots, improving coverage in high-risk regions and enabling joint operations.

Why we wouldn’t sign this petition

  • A national detection system would be costly and technically complex, requiring long-term funding and maintenance that may be hard to secure.
  • Coordinating across federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous jurisdictions could be administratively difficult and slow implementation.
  • Prioritizing detection infrastructure might divert funds from other measures the petition also seeks, like emissions reductions or grid upgrades.

The summary and both sets of reasons are AI-generated from the petition and given equal weight. Claims are the petitioners’ own; consult the official record for the full text.

Official petition

Petition to the House of Commons in Parliament assembled Canadian wildfire seasons are growing longer and more destructive, with 2023 and 2025 being the worst and second-worst wildfire seasons in Canadian history; The 2026 season has already seen over 3,100 fires and 1.4 million hectares burned, with nearly 800 wildfires active nationally as of July, displacing families and blanketing communities across Canada and beyond in hazardous smoke; The cost of suppressing a wildfire rises exponentially with its size, meaning every hour gained in detection saves lives, homes, forests, and public funds; Drone technology, satellite imaging, and AI-enabled camera networks can detect ignitions within minutes — long before traditional lookout or public-report methods — and pilot projects such as AI wildfire-detection cameras in Kananaskis, Alberta have shown promise but remain small and fragmented; Canada has invested in aerial firefighting response capacity but lacks a coordinated national early-detection system; and Canada's emissions reduction and clean energy commitments must accelerate to limit the warming that fuels these disasters. We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to: 1. Establish and fund a national early wildfire detection program — deploying drones, satellite monitoring, and AI-assisted camera networks across high-risk regions — developed and operated in partnership with provinces, territories, and Indigenous communities, with the goal of detecting new ignitions within minutes rather than hours; 2. Strengthen and enforce national greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, with binding interim milestones on the path to net-zero; and 3. Accelerate the deployment of clean, renewable energy — including expedited permitting, grid modernization, and investment in wind, solar, hydro, and storage — to displace fossil fuel generation more quickly.

Government response

No government response is available yet.