Canada is behind in the global drone race. But not for long<\/a><\/p>\nCanada\u2019s version is still in its infancy. So much so that Chlo\u00e9 Dupuis, a senior media relations adviser for the National Research Council of Canada, recently said in a written statement that the organization was \u201cnot in a position to confirm specifics at this time\u201d given its ongoing engagement with industry around the testing and qualification of drones. <\/p>\n
However, in a presentation to aerospace industry members in April, the National Research Council\u2019s Aerospace Research Centre clearly highlighted the Maple List as one of its \u201cmarquee activities\u201d being undertaken through its Drone Innovation Hub in Ottawa and Mirabel, Que. <\/p>\n
In February, the federal government committed $105-million over three years to launch this hub as part of its Defence Industrial Strategy. In that same document, it also identified uncrewed and autonomous systems as one of 10 key sovereign capabilities it\u2019s determined to build at home. <\/p>\n
That means Ottawa wants its own supply chain for drones, from motors to batteries to cameras, to be rooted in Canada \u2013 something the U.S. has already begun working on for its own industry. <\/p>\n
For example, in June 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to \u201cunleash American drone dominance\u201d and directed all federal agencies to prioritize U.S.-manufactured drones.<\/p>\n
In Canada, however, this type of decisive action is not yet in the cards for the country where many drone companies operate as assemblers or resellers rather than manufacturers of individual components. Previous market assessments have put the number of stakeholders in the Canadian aerial drone industry at a couple hundred at least, but this is likely growing as more companies look to enter the space given recent funding announcements.<\/p>\n
This is where a qualification framework such as a Maple List could come in handy to sort out what\u2019s actually made-in-Canada with Canadian content and intellectual property, said Josh Ogden, co-founder and chief executive at Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions Inc., which specializes in drone components manufactured in Canada. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to force companies to be honest, and we need to look under the hood,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Until now, drone companies in Canada haven\u2019t necessarily needed to build at scale because the market hasn\u2019t demanded that kind of volume, Mr. Ogden said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Canada, people were incentivized to build these $50,000, $100,000 drones, sell four or five or 10 of them a year. Whereas, if you were to manufacture at scale, those costs would not be viable, and you need to produce volume,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Glen Lynch, CEO at Volatus Aerospace, one of Canada\u2019s larger drone companies, said having a Maple List could be key for the country, especially to reduce some of Canada\u2019s reliance on U.S. qualification frameworks for its own drone procurement.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s national security requirements are different than that of the U.S., so it makes sense for it to have its own standards to reflect this, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Maple List could provide government buyers with greater confidence that approved systems meet Canadian expectations for cybersecurity, supply chain integrity and trusted manufacturing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But he cautioned its implementation must be well thought out and in consultation with industry. If Canada were to publish a Maple List too soon, it could decimate domestic drone companies. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s four components missing for mass production in Canada: flight controllers, speed controllers, batteries, and motors,\u201d he said. Therefore, industry needs time to adapt its supply chains, certify products and build manufacturing capacity to reduce its reliance on foreign suppliers before any new standards take effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, if they were to publish a needs list without industry consultation, they\u2019re liable to choke not just Canada, but North America.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Canada aims to strengthen its defence sector, Ottawa is working on creating a list of pre-approved drones…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,6347,20739],"class_list":["post-801077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ne-i","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}