Taking Your Drone to Canada? What You Need to Know

Now that travel is surging again, drone pilots are eager to head off on holiday this summer. Every country has different rules for foreign drone pilots, so we thought we’d start with Canada.

Before the pandemic hit roughly 14 million Americans visited Canada each year. And for good reason. Incredible scenery, cosmopolitan cities and everything in between makes Canada a holiday paradise.

But our readers want to know if they can fly their drone in Canada when they visit. The short answer is “it depends”.

Let’s start with some background on Canadian aviation rules, specifically the Canadian Aviation Regulations.  Five years ago Canadian skies were the “wild west” for drone pilots. There really were almost no rules governing who could fly, what they could fly or where they could fly. That all changed in 2018 when Transport Canada (the government agency responsible for aviation) started working on new and updated drone rules.

Prior to 2018 commercial drone activity was…