The Consumer Drone Market in Canada Is Blowing Up and It's Complicated

Not unlike the gun market, where consumer AR-15s aren't dissimilar in performance to a military grade M-16, consumer drones aren't all that different from their commercial counterparts. And in Canada, the line between the two is still murky.

Recently, French outfit Parrot signaled its entry into the Canadian consumer drone market with an official media launch party in Toronto. Part of its plan is to deliver affordable drones to average Canadians looking to make family videos or scenic landscape shots of their backyard. But as in the US, Canadian drone regulations leave unanswered questions about how exactly users can fly drones. Although Parrot drones aren’t nearly the first group of quadcopters to appear in Canada, the appealingly low price tag and easy accessibility could go a long way in making consumer drones more mainstream in the country.

“The FAA is very concerned about how drones will affect air space, and I’m assuming it’s the same with Transport Canada,” Peter George, Vice President of Marketing for Parrot America, said at the Toronto event. “At the moment you can’t fly higher than 400 feet, can’t fly them within three miles of an airport, and you can’t fly them in crowded spaces. None of our products impact those things.”

Given that commercial drone use in Canada is subject to strict licensing procedures, I reached out to Transport Canada, wondering what regulations users of something like a Parrot drone could expect. The agency's answer was clear enough. “The Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs) require anyone, including commercial organizations, conducting unmanned air vehicle (UAV) operations to obtain and comply with the provisions of a special flight operations certificate (SFOC) or an air operator certificate,” said spokesperson Karine Martel.

But many consumer drones easily fall under "model aircraft" definitions as well, which enjoy significantly looser controls. Martel explained that the definition of a model aircraft means an aircraft that does not exceed 35 kilograms, can't carry passengers, and is mechanically driven into flight for recreational purposes. “While UAVs and model aircraft both operate without a pilot on board, they are not the same,” she said. Model aircraft can be flown by anyone in Canada over the age of 16 as long as the aircraft stays within an appropriate line of sight, is used recreationally, and stays away from airports.

But the line can become easily blurred between consumer drones and commercial drones, especially given the increasingly sophisticated designs of drones for the average joe. Today’s consumer drones are being outfitted with sophisticated cameras, incorporating live streaming technology, and are constantly increasing the potential vertical reach consumer drones can already do in air. Sure, it may not be an Aeryon SkyRanger able to observe hydration levels in farmers fields, but Parrot drones can fly and surveil where directed in much the same way.

With the advanced technological capabilities and potential use for surveillance, consumer drones aren’t just hobby toys like model Spitfires that can be remote-controlled in the sky with a small gas engine. Parrot drones do, however, clearly meet the aforementioned criteria for weight and recreational use. But so do some of the commercial lightweight UAVs available for purchase on the market right now from a variety of companies.

The Phoenix AL-2 is one of the lightest UAVs on the market, and one of the most capable. It belongs to a specific group of commercial drones called “Light Detection and Ranging.” Sitting at just under five kilograms, this commercial drone could probably be considered consumer technology, even though it’s marketed as a professional piece of equipment.

A March 2013 Canadian Privacy Commissioner report examining drones in Canada put it best: "While aviation authorities such as the FAA and Transport Canada are focused on developing rules for the operation of small drones, model aircraft may actually be left entirely unregulated despite the fact they can often operate in much the same way as UAVs operating for commercial or other purposes such as surveillance."

But George said Parrot is clear with how their drones should be used: “Ultimately, our consumer drones are toys, designed to be used in backyards and local parks.” He said Parrot is always concerned that governments will invoke a new rule halting the democratization of consumer drones technology.

Although they meet weight requirements for recreational aircraft, the video capability of consumer drones like Parrot's were also singled out in the privacy commissioner report: “The prospect of cheap, small, portable flying video surveillance machines threatens to eradicate existing practical limits on aerial monitoring and allow for pervasive surveillance.” And if the privacy commissioner's office is sounding the alarm on certain consumer drones and capacity for surveillance, you can expect federal government-types will take notice.

The drone debate has been intertwined with the privacy debate since day one, and it’s no surprise why. Like the consumer and commercial drone sector, the private sector has been trying to figure out the lines between what constitutes recreational use and what could infringe on the privacy rights of Canadian citizens.

It’s not unlike the ongoing debate about the use of Google Glass, and where Glass wearers can actually wear their enhanced reality eyewear. At what point does the recreational use of the advanced eyewear stop being used for private uses and instead used to exploit others?

Each new Parrot drone comes outfitted with tiny cameras that are ideal for surveillance targets, just as much as catching your kid's first soccer game. Parrot’s first drone, the "Spider" model, uses the camera as a third eye, capturing the landscape around itself and using it to maintain balance with the added ability of taking still photographs while in the air. Then there’s the "Jumping Sumo" that looks closer to a floating drone RV, which can stream and record live video, and upload that video to a cloud network for others to view.

Questions surrounding the use of Parrot drones as surveillance devices is something George said he’s always asked about. And at the end of the day, Parrot obviously can’t promise that its technology won’t be used for surveillance or malicious purposes. “Ultimately, there is a certain level of behavior we expect and the user needs to do the right thing,” George said. “Everyone has a smartphone these days they can record on, and at the end of the day, it comes down to the user.”

This is among the biggest debates surrounding consumer drones right now. On June 10, headlines were made after a woman was charged with assault after violently hitting a teenage boy who was flying a consumer drone on a Connecticut beach. The woman was concerned he was using the drone to record her and others on the beach, once again throwing the debate about privacy and consumer drone technology into the public arena.

In the end, drone regulation is still a new landscape for Transport Canada and its office confirmed to me the agency is constantly reexamining UAV technology and its impact on Canadians. Whether changes are made to current regulations is yet to be seen. As for Parrot, its cheap drones look set to break into the Canadian marketplace in August, but it likely won't be the end of the debate.