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In response to the plethora of drone incidents that have been reported in the last few months, the Unmanned Aerial System Centre of Excellence (UAS CE) believes it should be mandated to develop a training program on the use of unmanned aircraft.
According to UAS CE’s director general Marc Moffatt, “what has been done by Transport Canada is not enough. The message is not getting across to the users and all this time, the incidents continue to occur.”
A solution: the UAS CE
Part of the UAS CE’s mission is to support the development of the regulation in Canada by being a key player in the drone industry representation, dissemination of information to civil society and innovation. Training being one the organization’s priority sector, the creation of a training program on the use of drones clearly fits into the UAS CE’s mission.
“The UAS CE has been requesting the mandate to develop such training program for a long time. In response to the incidents that had occurred near Toronto, for example, we proposed our project during a consultation on transports held in Ottawa in 2016, but actions that were taken by Transport Canada did not bring any results,” said Moffatt.
Concrete Actions
According to Moffatt, the outreach efforts must focus on the youth. “We need to be where the target clientele is and most importantly, we need to use the same channels of communication as them.”
The Unmanned Aerial System Centre of Excellence intends to request a meeting with the Minister of Transport of Canada as expeditiously as possible in order to discuss the mandate and the next steps to be taken. “Let’s not wait any longer before switching to problem-solving mode,” Moffatt concluded.
