Flashpoint was conceived in 2005 as part of a CTV project that invited actors to submit scripts, and the original script was known earlier under the titles Sniper and Critical Incident before becoming a two-hour television film project.

A pilot episode was produced for CTV in July 2007 under the title Critical Incident, featuring most of the eventual cast but without the characters Jules Callaghan and Lewis Young, who were instead named Kate Travers and Robert 'Shakes' Boneyman.

Flashpoint became the second Canadian TV series (after Due South) to air in primetime on a major American broadcast network, and the first Canadian series on a major US network to be set entirely in Canada.

The pilot episode, titled 'Scorpio', was based on a real 2004 Toronto incident in which an Emergency Task Force sniper shot and killed a gun-wielding hostage-taker; creators Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern wrote the teleplay after interviewing actual ETF members.

Much of the aired 'Scorpio' pilot reused footage from the unaired Critical Incident pilot, combined with new scenes featuring Amy Jo Johnson and Mark Taylor, who had not appeared in the original pilot.

Amy Jo Johnson, the only American cast member among a largely Canadian cast, continued performing the show's physically demanding scenes despite being pregnant during the series' initial production.

The show's creators said they intentionally cast mostly Canadian actors, citing both the strong Canadian talent pool and the belief that American audiences would have fewer preconceptions about unfamiliar performers.

Although Flashpoint is set in Toronto and CTV's press materials identified the city, the show deliberately kept its setting vague on screen, with producer Bill Mustos stating the goal was to avoid a location that 'screams Canada' in favor of universal urban stories.

The pilot episode drew 1.11 million viewers in Canada and 8.23 million viewers in the United States, ranking No. 1 in its timeslot on both CTV and CBS.