RPAS Program

This program is the written, auditable system under which the department flies remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS, commonly called drones) at incidents, training and planned events, lawfully, safely and without surprising anyone in the air or on the ground. When it is working, every flight is flown by a pilot with a current Transport Canada certificate and current department proficiency, from a site that was surveyed before launch, in airspace that was checked and, where required, authorized; no department aircraft is ever in the air at the same time as a helicopter, air tanker or medevac aircraft without the air operations lead knowing where it is; every flight, every battery cycle and every maintenance action is logged; batteries are charged and stored so they cannot burn a station down; imagery is collected for an operational need, kept for a defined period, and handled so it stands up as evidence and respects the people in it; and every fly-away, lost link, near miss with manned aircraft and hard landing is reported and fed back to the pilots. The program is owned by a line officer through the RPAS Program Improvement Team, verified by the health and safety officer, and consulted on by the JOHSC (06 Program Improvement Teams).

This is a conditional module. It is switched on when the department answers yes to Program Profile Worksheet Part B “Does the department operate RPAS (drones)?” and marks module 20 Required in Part C (01 Program Profile Worksheet). A department that does not fly its own aircraft but receives RPAS support from police, a mutual aid partner or a contractor keeps sections 5.9 (airspace deconfliction), 5.11 (mutual aid and contractor use) and 5.13 (intruding aircraft) switched on and records the rest as not applicable with the reason. A department whose members fly personal drones at incidents on their own initiative has the module switched on whether it meant to or not; the first act of the program is to stop that, because flight over an emergency scene without the controlling authority’s permission is prohibited (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 901.48 to 901.49).

Terms are consistent with 06 Glossary and Acronyms.

• Advanced pilot certificate: the Transport Canada certificate required for small RPAS operations in controlled airspace, near or over people, or near aerodromes; obtained by online examination and an in-person flight review (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, Part IX Division IV).
• Beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS): flight where the pilot or observer cannot keep the aircraft in direct unaided view; permitted only under a Level 1 Complex Operations certificate within set limits, or an SFOC (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, Part IX).
• Chain of custody: the documented, unbroken record of who held imagery or data, when and why, from collection to disposal, so it can be relied on as evidence.
• Fire traffic area: the airspace around a wildfire where firefighting aircraft operate under an air operations function; no RPAS may enter it without that function’s approval (NFPA 1140, 2022).
• Level 1 Complex Operations certificate: the certificate added by the 2025 amendments (SOR/2025-70) for lower-risk BVLOS flight in uncontrolled airspace below 122 m AGL and at least 1 km from populated areas (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, Part IX).
• NAV Drone authorization: the NAV CANADA RPAS flight authorization required before flight in controlled airspace (NAV CANADA, n.d.).
• Privacy impact assessment (PIA): a written assessment of what personal information a program collects, why, how it is protected, kept and disclosed, completed before collection begins (Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, n.d.).
• Remote pilot in command (RPIC): the certified pilot responsible for the safe conduct of a flight from pre-flight to post-flight (NFPA 2400, 2024).
• Remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS): an aircraft flown by a pilot who is not on board, with its control station and links; the regulatory term for a drone (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, Part IX).
• Return to home (RTH): the aircraft’s automatic flight back to its recorded launch point on lost link, low battery or pilot command, at a preset altitude.
• RPAS Operator Certificate (RPOC): the organizational certificate required for BVLOS and other complex operations, with an operations manual and training program (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, Part IX).
• Sensor operator: a crew member who operates the payload (camera, thermal imager) while the pilot flies (NFPA 2400, 2024).
• Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC): Transport Canada’s case-by-case authorization for an operation outside the standard rules (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, Part IX Division V).
• Visual line of sight (VLOS): direct unaided view of the aircraft by the pilot or a visual observer, sufficient to control it and see other aircraft (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, Part IX).
• Visual observer: a trained crew member whose only task is to watch the aircraft and the surrounding airspace and tell the pilot what is coming (NFPA 2400, 2024).

Aviation law is federal and the same across Canada; what varies by province and territory is privacy law, wildfire air operations arrangements and the OHS statute that covers the launch site (see Jurisdiction requirements). Transport Canada rules change often. The program keeps an edition watch (element 5.2). Full citations are consolidated in 02 Standards and Law Master Map.

R = responsible, A = accountable (one per row), C = consulted, I = informed. Generic roles are defined in 01 Roles and Responsibilities; Program Improvement Team roles in 06 Program Improvement Teams.

Each element states the requirement, the minimum method, the evidence or record, and the stage.

Requirement. The department must have a written RPAS program approved by the fire chief, consulted on with the JOHSC, and reviewed within 12 months of adoption and at least every three years after that, with an operations manual that covers organization and roles, mission types and restrictions, pilot qualification and currency, aircraft, normal and emergency procedures, airspace, night and over-people rules, maintenance, records, privacy, occurrence reporting and fatigue (NFPA 2400, 2024, ch. 4). The manual is written to RPOC grade even where no RPOC is required, so the department is ready when an operation needs one (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, Part IX). (S1)

Minimum method. Adopt this note and build the operations manual from toolkit T5. State the mission types the department will fly (size-up and overwatch, thermal search, wildland mapping and hot-spot detection, hazmat reconnaissance, water and ice rescue spotting, post-incident documentation, training) and the ones it will not (flights over crowds without an SFOC, flights in a fire traffic area without air operations approval, surveillance of people unrelated to an incident). File the JOHSC consultation record.

Evidence. Signed charter; operations manual with revision log; JOHSC minutes.

Requirement. The program must track Transport Canada rule changes, advisory material and NAV CANADA procedures and bring the manual into line within 90 days of a change taking effect. The 2025 amendments (SOR/2025-70: medium RPAS, Level 1 Complex, RPOC) and the proposed remote identification requirement show how fast the ground moves (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, Part IX). (S1)

Minimum method. The chief pilot checks the Transport Canada drone pages (Transport Canada, 2025b), the Canada Gazette and NAV Drone notices quarterly and records the check in the quarterly update; any change becomes a corrective action with a due date.

Evidence. Quarterly update line “regulations checked, date, result”; corrective actions.

Requirement. Every operational pilot must hold a Transport Canada Advanced pilot certificate (Basic is accepted only for training flights in uncontrolled airspace away from people, at the chief pilot’s discretion), complete the Transport Canada recency requirement every 24 months (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, Part IX), and meet the department’s own currency rule: at least one logged flight every 90 days and a proficiency check with the chief pilot every 12 months. A pilot flying BVLOS must hold the Level 1 Complex Operations certificate and the department must hold an RPOC for that operation (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, Part IX). Night flights require documented night training (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 901.39 to 901.40). Visual observers and sensor operators complete the department’s ground school and the job performance requirements for their role (NFPA 2400, 2024, ch. 5). (S1 for certificates; S2 for the full currency scheme)

Minimum method. Toolkit T6 qualification and currency matrix, kept by the chief pilot; lapsed pilots are grounded until current and the dispatcher’s RPAS roster shows only current pilots.

Evidence. Certificate copies; T6; proficiency check records; roster.

Requirement. No member may act as pilot, observer or sensor operator within 12 hours of consuming alcohol, while impaired by any drug including prescribed medication that affects alertness, or when fatigued (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, s. 901.19). A pilot who has worked more than {{Hours}} continuous hours or flown more than {{Flight hours}} in a duty period must stand down. (S1)

Minimum method. The fitness declaration is the first item on the pre-flight checklist (T2) and is spoken, not assumed. The incident commander accepts “I am not fit to fly” as a complete answer. Fatigue limits follow Policy - Fatigue and Hours of Work.

Evidence. Pre-flight checklists; fatigue stand-down entries in the flight log.

Requirement. Every aircraft over 250 g must be registered to the department, carry its registration mark, be listed in the operations manual with its manufacturer safety declaration status for operations near or over people (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, Part IX), and be covered by the municipal liability insurance with RPAS named. Aircraft are selected against the selection criteria of the public safety sUAS standard for the mission types adopted (NFPA 2400, 2024). (S1)

Minimum method. Aircraft register in T4 (maintenance log header); insurance certificate on file; the Equipment Standards team (06 Program Improvement Teams section 7) reviews any purchase.

Evidence. Registration certificates; insurance letter; aircraft register.

Requirement. Before every flight the pilot must complete a site survey (airspace class, nearby aerodromes and heliports, obstacles, people, weather, radio and GPS interference, launch and recovery area) and a pre-flight check (aircraft, batteries, controller, firmware, return-to-home settings, lights at night) (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 901.23 and 901.26). In controlled airspace the pilot must hold a NAV Drone authorization before launch (NAV CANADA, n.d.). Emergency flights do not waive the survey; they shorten it to the T2 emergency column. (S1)

Minimum method. Toolkit T2 pre-flight checklist on a card in the RPAS case and in the department app; NOTAM and NAV Drone check from the pilot’s device; weather minima from the operations manual (wind, precipitation, temperature, visibility, icing).

Evidence. Completed T2 per flight (retained with the flight log); NAV Drone authorization record.

Requirement. RPAS fly only under the incident commander’s tasking, logged in the incident management system as an RPAS unit (NFPA 1550, 2024), with a visual observer whenever the pilot cannot keep both the aircraft and the surroundings in view, with a secured launch and recovery zone, within visual line of sight unless certified otherwise, no higher than 122 m AGL unless authorized (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, s. 901.47), and at the distances from bystanders the pilot’s certificate and the aircraft’s declaration allow. Crews on the ground are told an aircraft is overhead. (S1)

Minimum method. SWP - RPAS Flight Operations; RPAS unit designation on the tactical worksheet; launch and recovery zone marked and kept clear of members and the public; the pilot announces launch and landing on the incident channel.

Evidence. Flight log; incident reports showing the RPAS unit; ISO observations.

Requirement. Night flights require position lights, pilot night training (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 901.39 to 901.40), a surveyed and lit launch area, and the chief pilot’s authorization for the pilot. Operations within 30 m of or over bystanders require the Advanced certificate and an aircraft with the matching manufacturer safety declaration; flights over crowds or advertised events require an SFOC (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, Part IX Divisions IV and V). (S2)

Minimum method. Night endorsement in T6; the over-people decision recorded on T2; SFOC applications handled by the program manager with at least the lead time Transport Canada publishes (Transport Canada, 2025b).

Evidence. T6 endorsements; T2 entries; SFOC on file with conditions.

Requirement. No department aircraft may fly in a wildfire traffic area, or anywhere helicopters or air tankers are working, without approval from the air operations function of the agency controlling the airspace (NFPA 1140, 2022). The pilot must monitor the assigned air-to-ground channel, never a side channel, and must land immediately when a manned aircraft approaches. Where a medevac helicopter, police RPAS or Coast Guard aircraft may attend, the incident commander confirms deconfliction before launch. The department requests a NOTAM or temporary restriction through the controlling agency where the incident will run long. (S1)

Minimum method. The deconfliction steps in SWP - RPAS Flight Operations section 6; a standing agreement with the provincial or territorial wildfire agency (J35 Wildland and Interface Fire), the air ambulance provider and the police RPAS unit on channels and notification; coordination recorded in the flight log. The after-action review of a recent Canadian interface fire season found the airspace over the fire disorganized, out-of-province fixed-wing aircraft on unofficial side channels that rotary-wing pilots did not monitor, and aircrews absent from the morning briefing and the incident action plan (Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, 2024). That is the reason this element is absolute.

Evidence. Agreements; flight log entries showing the approval and channel; AAR records.

Requirement. Each aircraft must have a maintenance program following the manufacturer’s instructions and the maintenance chapter of the public safety sUAS standard (NFPA 2400, 2024), with pre-flight and post-flight inspections, scheduled inspections by flight hours or calendar, firmware and app version control, propeller replacement rules, compass and inertial unit calibration records, and a post-incident inspection after any hard landing, crash or water contact. Lithium polymer batteries must be logged by serial number with cycle count, charged only in a fire-resistant charging bag or cabinet on a non-combustible surface with a smoke alarm in the room and never unattended, stored at storage charge when not in use, inspected for swelling, damage and heat before every charge and flight, and retired at the manufacturer’s cycle limit or on any sign of damage. The minimum landing reserve is 25 percent. Maintenance records are kept at least 24 months (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, s. 901.29). (S1)

Minimum method. Toolkit T3 battery log and T4 maintenance log, kept per aircraft and battery; charging station in a location agreed with the Facilities team; retired batteries discharged and disposed through the municipal hazardous waste stream.

Evidence. T3, T4; charging area inspection in the station inspection checklist; disposal receipts.

Requirement. When another agency or a contractor flies at a department incident, the incident commander remains in control of the airspace at the scene (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 901.48 to 901.49); the partner must show its certificate, registration and insurance, follow the department’s deconfliction rules and privacy rules, and give the department copies of imagery relevant to the incident record. When the department flies for another agency, the operations manual and this program travel with the aircraft. (S2)

Minimum method. A one-page RPAS partner briefing card; terms in mutual aid agreements per Policy - Contractors and Mutual Aid.

Evidence. Briefing card; agreement clauses.

Requirement. Before the first operational flight the department must complete a privacy impact assessment covering imagery and thermal imagery of people, homes and vehicles, collection limited to operational need, access controls, retention periods, disclosure under access-to-information law, release to police or insurers, and public notice (Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, n.d.). Imagery that may become evidence is handled with a chain of custody: original files retained unaltered, hash or write-once storage, access logged, copies tracked. (S1)

Minimum method. PIA template from the municipal privacy officer; retention schedule in 05 Document Control and Records; chain-of-custody fields in the flight log; public notice through the department’s website and the operations manual. Members do not post imagery to personal accounts.

Evidence. PIA; retention schedule; access logs; a public notice.

Requirement. The department must have a procedure for drones it does not control appearing over an incident: the incident commander reports it to police and, at wildland incidents, to air operations, which may ground firefighting aircraft until the intruder is gone. Flight over an emergency scene without permission is an offence (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 901.48 to 901.49). Members do not attempt to bring an intruding drone down. (S1)

Minimum method. Scripted radio report; police liaison; public education that flying over an emergency scene is prohibited (Transport Canada, 2025b).

Evidence. Incident reports; AAR entries.

Requirement. Every fly-away, lost link lasting longer than the return-to-home trigger, hard landing, crash, battery event, near miss with a manned aircraft or another RPAS, propeller injury, flight outside a limit, and privacy complaint must be reported in the department’s near-miss and incident system, reviewed by the chief pilot within five working days, and reported to Transport Canada through CADORS or to the Transportation Safety Board where the regulations require (Transport Canada, 2025b; Transportation Safety Board Regulations [CA], 2026). Reports are learning information under the learning firewall (Incident Investigation and Learning Program). (S1)

Minimum method. SWP - RPAS Flight Operations section 8; the chief pilot keeps a log of occurrences and what changed.

Evidence. Occurrence reports; regulator submissions; change notices.

Requirement. Flight logs, maintenance logs and battery logs must be kept for at least 24 months (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, s. 901.29); the department keeps them for the retention period in 05 Document Control and Records, which is longer where imagery is evidence. (S1)

Minimum method. Form - RPAS Flight and Battery Log; the department’s records system.

Evidence. Complete logs on audit sample.

An RPAS unit is a small aviation operation inside a fire department. Aviation learned long ago that pilots who can say “no” and crews who report their own errors are the safety system; the equipment is secondary. This program borrows that directly, and treats the gap between the written procedure and the flight as actually flown as the thing to study, not the thing to punish (Hollnagel, 2014).

(a) Work-as-done. Before the operations manual or any procedure is written or changed, the RPAS team runs a learning-team session with the pilots and observers (Conklin, 2012): how a pilot actually gets tasked at a working fire (often by a shout, not a radio order); how long a real site survey takes at 02:00 in a driveway; what pilots do when the incident commander wants the aircraft up now and the NAV Drone authorization has not come back; where batteries actually get charged on a 24-hour tour; which weather minima get stretched and why; what happened the last time a helicopter appeared. The manual describes that work, with the margins the pilots say they need.

(b) Capacity and margins. The work goes right because pilots are conservative by training, the aircraft returns home on its own when it loses link, batteries are swapped before they are empty, and observers watch the sky while the pilot watches the screen. That capacity is eroded by pressure to launch before the survey is done, by a single pilot doing pilot and observer and sensor work alone, by batteries aged past their cycle limit, by firmware changes nobody tested, and by the quiet assumption that “the fire needs it” overrides a rule. The program protects the margin with the 25 percent landing reserve, the two-person minimum at incidents, the 90-day currency rule, the fitness declaration and the chief pilot’s authority to ground an aircraft or a pilot.

(c) Just culture. A pilot who flew above 122 m to see over a smoke column, or launched before the authorization arrived, has usually done so because the incident made it the sensible choice at the time. The response is to understand the pressure and change the conditions. Occurrence reports, learning-team notes and after-action reviews are never used for discipline. Conduct concerns (flying impaired, flying over a crowd knowing there was no SFOC, sharing imagery for personal reasons) go to a separate process run by different people under Policy - Internal Responsibility and Accountability.

(d) Psychological safety. Psychological safety is the shared belief in a crew that it is safe to speak up, ask, admit error and challenge (Edmondson, 1999)DOI. Any member, pilot or not, stops a flight by saying “Hold the launch” or “Land now” and naming the reason: “Land now, helicopter inbound from the south.” The pilot lands and the officer acknowledges without argument, then asks what the member saw. A pilot tells the incident commander “I cannot fly that” and gives the reason in one sentence; the commander accepts it and finds another way to get the information. Leaders show it is safe by logging their own no-go decisions, by reading occurrence reports aloud at pilot meetings without names, and by telling the pilot who reported a near miss what changed because of it.

(e) Learning link. A near miss with a manned aircraft, a fly-away over people, a propeller injury or a battery fire is at least a Tier 2 Post-Incident Analysis; a collision with a manned aircraft or a serious injury is a Tier 3 Independent Learning Review. Every lost link, hard landing, no-go decision and flight that ended early is a Tier 1 After-Action Review. The AAR questions after any flight: “What did we need the aircraft to tell us, and did it?” “What was in the air that we did not know about?” “Where did the rules and the incident pull in different directions?” “What would have made the next launch easier to do right?” Method: Incident Investigation and Learning Program and, for the full tiers, Manual 02 - The Three Tiers and Event Triage.

• SWP - RPAS Flight Operations

Procedures this program depends on but does not own: SWP - Wildland Deployment, LCES and Heat (air operations and airspace at wildland incidents); SWP - Accountability and Personnel Accountability Reports; SWP - Lockout and Shop Safety for the charging area in Facilities and Station Safety Program.

Loop test. A visual observer at a volunteer station reports on Monday that the aircraft lost link twice over the same ridge at a brush fire and returned home on its own both times. By end of day the chief pilot has the flight log and the aircraft is held from service pending inspection. By Friday the occurrence is in the register with the chief pilot as owner, the observer has had a reply, and the firmware and antenna on the other aircraft have been checked. Within the quarter the cause is known (an aged controller antenna), every aircraft has been inspected, the pre-flight checklist has a controller antenna line, a change notice has gone to every pilot, and the item is closed with evidence and reported in the quarterly update and to the JOHSC.

Audit category: Checklist - RPAS, Marine and ARFF (Conditional Modules). The five questions an auditor asks first:

1. Show me the pilot roster and the T6 matrix. Who is on the dispatch roster today who is not current?
2. Pick the last five flights. Show me the pre-flight checklist, the flight log entry, the airspace check and, for any flight in controlled airspace, the NAV Drone authorization.
3. Show me the last wildland or multi-agency incident with aircraft overhead. Where is the air operations approval and the assigned channel in the log?
4. Walk me to the charging area. Show me the battery log for the batteries on charge right now.
5. Show me the last occurrence. Who reviewed it, was it reportable, what changed, and who was told?

For an accredited or candidate department, the auditor also maps the answers to the accreditation criteria: question 5 evidences the hazard reporting and communication criterion, questions 2 and 3 the emergency operations risk management criterion, question 3 the incident safety officer and accountability criteria, and the team’s annual appraisal (toolkit T8 rolled into 06 Program Improvement Teams section 10) the program appraisal criterion for the wildland or EMS program the unit supports (CPSE, 2019, criteria 11A.2, 11A.8, 11A.11, 11A.12, 5K.3, 5F.9). The 10th edition remains in use until summer 2026 and the 11th edition applies to agencies appearing from spring 2027 (CPSE, 2025).

The public record on public safety RPAS is short but consistent. The provincial after-action review of a recent interface fire season found aircraft operating over the fire on unofficial side channels that other pilots did not monitor, aircrews outside the briefing and the incident action plan, and the whole air operations role resting on one person (Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, 2024); add an unannounced drone to that picture and the risk is obvious. Transport Canada’s emergency scene rule exists because hobby aircraft have interfered with firefighting and police operations often enough to need one (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 901.48 to 901.49; Transport Canada, 2025b). The regulations’ own structure points at the rest: a site survey and pre-flight check requirement because launches from unsurveyed sites and unchecked return-to-home settings end in fly-aways; a fitness rule because fatigue and alcohol degrade a pilot like any other; a records rule because an operator who cannot show its logs cannot learn from them (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 901.19, 901.23, 901.26, 901.29). The public safety sUAS standard adds the pieces a regulator does not: a program manager, crew roles, skills proficiency, maintenance and a battery regime (NFPA 2400, 2024). Lithium polymer batteries are a fire hazard in their own right, and the controls here (inspection before charge, charging in a fire-resistant container, never unattended, retirement on damage or at cycle limit) follow the manufacturers’ own instructions. This program answers each with the deconfliction rule and the assigned channel, the pre-flight checklist with RTH and calibration lines, the launch zone rule, the battery program and charging controls, the airspace authorization step and the privacy impact assessment.

Stage 1 (Foundation) minimum. Charter and operations manual adopted; program manager and chief pilot appointed; every aircraft registered and insured; every operational pilot holding an Advanced certificate and listed in T6; pre-flight checklist and flight log in use for every flight; airspace check and NAV Drone authorization before any controlled-airspace flight; the deconfliction rule and air-to-ground channel agreed with the provincial wildfire agency, air ambulance and police; battery log, charging bag or cabinet and the no-unattended-charging rule in force; privacy impact assessment completed; occurrence reporting live.

Cost (people). Chief pilot about half a day a week for a fleet of one to three aircraft; each pilot two to three hours a month for currency flights and logs; ground school eight hours per pilot at entry; observer course four hours; incident commander awareness two hours.

Cost (money, order of magnitude; confirm locally). Transport Canada examination and flight review fees per pilot; aircraft and payload purchase (a thermal-capable enterprise aircraft is the main capital line); spare batteries and a charging cabinet; a fire-resistant charging bag per charging location; a tablet and lighting for night operations; insurance rider; a records or media storage solution with access logging; an annual replacement line for propellers, batteries and one aircraft on a four-year cycle. Put the aircraft and battery replacement cycle on the team’s five-year budget worksheet (06 Program Improvement Teams section 11).

This chapter relies on the following legal requirements, which differ by province and territory. Check your jurisdiction’s section on each topic page before adopting it.

Card in every aircraft case. The emergency column is the minimum for an immediate operational launch; the full column applies to every other flight and is completed after an emergency launch as soon as the aircraft is stable. The checklist satisfies the site survey and pre-flight requirements (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 901.23 and 901.26).

One line per charge or discharge event per battery. Full form in Form - RPAS Flight and Battery Log.

Header: registration mark, department ID, make and model, serial, date in service, manufacturer safety declaration status, insurance confirmation date.

1. Purpose, scope and authority (program charter; fire chief approval; JOHSC consultation).
2. Organization and roles (program manager, chief pilot, remote pilot in command, visual observer, sensor operator, maintainer, privacy or records officer; authority to ground).
3. Mission types and restrictions (adopted list; prohibited flights; the emergency scene rule; the fire traffic area rule).
4. Regulatory framework and watch (CARs Part IX summary with the department’s categories; NAV Drone; SFOC and RPOC status; reporting duties).
5. Pilot qualification, currency and fitness (T6; proficiency checks; fatigue and alcohol rules; night and BVLOS endorsements).
6. Aircraft and equipment (register; declarations; insurance; case inventory; approved firmware list).
7. Normal procedures (tasking; site survey; pre-flight T2; launch and recovery zone; VLOS and observer; altitude and distance rules; communications and announcements; landing and post-flight; data download).
8. Airspace and deconfliction (controlled airspace; aerodromes; wildfire air operations; medevac; police RPAS; NOTAM requests; intruding drones).
9. Weather minima and environmental limits (wind, precipitation, temperature, visibility, icing, electromagnetic interference, water).
10. Night operations and over-people operations.
11. Emergency procedures (fly-away, lost link, low battery, manned aircraft intrusion, loss of GPS, flight controller fault, battery fire in flight or on the ground, injury, crash recovery, water recovery).
12. Maintenance and battery program (T3, T4; charging and storage rules; retirement; disposal).
13. Records (flight, battery, maintenance; retention; where kept).
14. Privacy, data and evidence (PIA summary; collection limits; retention; access; disclosure; chain of custody; public notice; social media rule).
15. Occurrence reporting and learning (department reporting; CADORS; TSB; the learning firewall; pilot meetings).
16. Training program (courses, hours, instructors, evaluation, records).
17. Mutual aid, contractor and partner operations.
18. Program evaluation (indicators; annual audit; management review input).
19. Appendices (checklists; radio scripts; forms; agreements; approved firmware list; contacts).

Completed by the team lead within 15 days of quarter end; goes to the program manager, the senior leadership team and the JOHSC.

Copy section 11 into the team’s terms of reference (06 Program Improvement Teams section 12) with the department’s titles from 01 Roles and Responsibilities section 6. Defaults in one line each:

• Owner: program manager, RPAS team (line district chief).
• Doer: remote pilots in command, observers and sensor operators, chief pilot, incident commanders, station officers, privacy or records officer, training division.
• Verifier: chief pilot monthly; station officer monthly; HSO quarterly sample and one observed launch; JOHSC inspections; internal audit annually; independent review every three years.
• Feedback: quarterly update inside 15 days; pilot meeting each quarter; reply to the reporter inside five working days; change notices with every manual revision.
• Closure: Corrective Action Register inside five working days, each item rated P1 to P4 on the one priority scale, which sets its due dates and escalation; evidence and verifier sign-off to close; monthly to the JOHSC, annually to the fire chief.

The Stage 1 minimum and the cost note are in section 14. For budgeting, transfer these lines to the team’s five-year worksheet: pilot certification fees and recurrency; aircraft and payload replacement cycle; batteries on a cycle-limit replacement line; charging cabinet and bags; night lighting; tablets; insurance rider; media storage with access logging; training hours and backfill.

NAV CANADA. (n.d.). NAV Drone: RPAS flight authorization [Web page]. https://www.navcanada.ca/en/flight-planning/drone-flight-planning.aspx

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. (n.d.). Drones in Canada [Web page, with guidance on privacy impact assessments]. https://www.priv.gc.ca