Canmore Ranks Among Top Alberta Communities on Wildfire Preparedness

Canmore ranks among Alberta’s top-performing communities on wildfire preparedness, earning an A- on a new provincial scorecard, but the town says the results expose gaps in long-term planning and a growing reliance on residents to carry out mitigation work.

The town’s 2025 FireSmart Alberta Community Scorecard places Canmore above the pilot-program average of B and among the highest-performing communities in publicly available pilot results.

“The town achieved a score of A-, which I think is something to certainly feel very proud about,” said Simon Bagshaw, Canmore’s regional FireSmart co-ordinator, during an April 21 council meeting.

The scorecard, a provincially recognized self-assessment tool, is designed to help municipalities evaluate wildfire preparedness and identify gaps, but is not independently verified and is intended as a planning tool rather than a formal ranking system.

“I think this reflects the important progress the town has made towards becoming a wildfire resilient community. At the same time, there is certainly room for improvement,” Bagshaw said.

Those gaps are most evident in how wildfire mitigation efforts are coordinated and maintained over time. Canmore scored lower in interagency co-operation and showed gaps in long-term planning, including the lack of consistent annual work plans and regular strategy updates.

“We need more regular, by which I mean annual, interdepartmental review and updating of the wildfire mitigation strategy,” Bagshaw said.

The town’s wildfire mitigation strategy was last completed in 2018, and planning processes, including work plans and strategy updates, are not consistently updated or tracked on an annual basis, according to the assessment.

Bagshaw said those issues will be addressed through a planned rewrite of the town’s wildfire mitigation strategy, with a stronger emphasis on implementation and accountability. He said the changes reflect a broader shift toward greater community participation.

“I think it's fair to say the town is doing a lot, but wildfire resilience is really a whole community effort,” Bagshaw said.

That community-based approach is reflected in the town’s FireSmart neighbourhood recognition program, which relies on volunteer “neighbourhood champions” to organize local mitigation efforts and encourage participation, but the town acknowledges the model presents challenges.

“We have a lot of people in the community who are happy to be on FireSmart committees,” Bagshaw said. “We have few who are happy to lead the committees.”

Public awareness also remains a barrier. Outreach data indicates most residents contacted were unfamiliar with the neighbourhood program, even as the town seeks to expand participation.

Other Alberta communities, however, have taken a more active approach. The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, for example, saw a significant increase in participation in home mitigation efforts after introducing rebate programs, while Banff has combined homeowner incentives with municipal spending and direct action on town-owned vegetation near private properties.

The comparison highlights a key tension in Canmore’s approach, encouraging greater resident participation without the same level of financial support seen in some other communities.

This tension can also arise at the boundary between public and private land. Bagshaw said some residents have reduced wildfire risk on their own properties but remain exposed to hazards from adjacent town-owned trees, an issue the town is working to address.

“We have people who have FireSmarted their properties as best they can, and then they're left with a town tree that's overhanging their property, which is what is actually presenting the hazard at that stage,” he said, adding the town is looking at ways to streamline processes to address those concerns.

Despite those challenges, the town says the scorecard provides a baseline to guide improvements over time, as they work to close planning gaps while expanding community participation in wildfire mitigation.