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The quick read: The City of Kelowna, Okanagan College and Squamish-based FireSwarm Solutions have signed two memorandums of understanding to build Kelowna into Canada's western hub for aerospace and drone innovation, centred at Kelowna International Airport. The partnership grows out of a 2025 drone-swarm wildfire test on Knox Mountain and pairs with a new training hangar at YLW to train the aircraft maintenance engineers the industry will need.

Kelowna's airport may soon be known for more than departures. It could become the centre of a new Canadian industry.

The City of Kelowna, Okanagan College and FireSwarm Solutions, a B.C. company based in Squamish, have signed two memorandums of understanding committing to ongoing collaboration to grow the company's operations in the Interior and establish Kelowna as Canada's western hub for aerospace and drone innovation. The announcement was made at the Union of BC Municipalities convention in Vancouver.

From a Knox Mountain test to a hub

The partnership has real roots, not just ribbon-cutting. In 2025, FireSwarm and the Kelowna Fire Department conducted an Integrated Training Exercise on Knox Mountain to demonstrate FireSwarm's automated drone-swarm platform and its potential for wildfire suppression, with observers from Transport Canada, BC Wildfire Service and other leading agencies. That test was the first step toward the partnership with the City.

Now, alongside YLW and Okanagan College, the group is positioning the region to show how technology built for emergency response can also serve broader civilian and dual-use needs. Mayor Tom Dyas said the partnership represents an exciting step forward, creating the potential to advance wildfire resilience solutions, support high-quality jobs for future generations, and reinforce Kelowna's reputation as a hub for innovation, investment and economic growth.

Jobs need training, and training is coming

FireSwarm's partnership with Okanagan College reflects a joint commitment to develop and launch new programs that would allow aircraft maintenance engineers to be trained in drone-specific technologies and structures. Construction is underway on a new training hangar at YLW that will add purpose-built instructional space at the airport, funded through the BPL Legacy Association and the College, allowing the College to plan new programs in avionics, uncrewed aerial systems technologies and manufacturing.

Okanagan College president Dr. Neil Fassina put it plainly: Kelowna has an opportunity to become a leader in the next generation of aerospace and aviation, and that requires people with the skills to put that technology to work. FireSwarm's Alex Deslauriers said the company expects the collaboration to create new jobs at YLW and make a meaningful contribution to the Canadian economy.

The partners are clear the MOUs are a starting point rather than a single announcement. That is the right framing, and the right ambition: private innovation, local government and a college pulling in the same direction, building skilled jobs in a city that knows firsthand what is at stake when wildfire strikes.

Source: Okanagan College announcement, November 2026.