SPC members talk about drone safety

Drone safety was discussed by the Lethbridge Community Safety SPC on Thursday afternoon. A submission from a community member asked the city to implement more measures to prohibit the use of microdrones that weigh less than 250 grams.

City staff said it is not up to them to manage complaints of drones. They also said the safety of the city is not in question and they delegate drone complaints over to Transport Canada. Duane Ens, the general manager of regulator services with the city explained what many of the drones are used for.

“There’s commercial things that are exploding. I mean, real estate agents are using these and a whole bunch of other different businesses. And the city actually uses some of these. Entertainment business too. Well, yeah, we just had a discussion, a workshop with the movie production, and they’re talking about how much they use these drones or whatever. I think it’s more of a hobby for individuals. I think they get some fun out of it. Whenever you do something like this people can misuse these things, but there are a lot of controls in the product when you purchase it itself. And there are a lot of regulations. There’s actually a complaint form online with Transport Canada that you can go in and completely fill out that and get them to investigate.”

The Community Safety SPC recommended that city council receive the report as information.