Photo: Stoney Nakoda Nation members participate in a drone training course inside the Mînî Thnî Arena as part of the RCMP’s Drone as a First Responder pilot program in June 2024. / Photo courtesy of IN-FLIGHT Data.
By Leah Pelletier
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Rocky Mountain Outlook
The future of Canada’s drone industry is taking off within Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation.
With drone operators in high demand across Canada, Southern Alberta-based drone operation and training company, IN-FLIGHT Data, is clearing the way for Stoney Nakoda members to earn their drone pilot licence through a free training program.
“In the next 10 years there’s going to be a wave of high-tech aviation jobs that are going to come into the Canadian marketplace,” said Chris Healy, president and CEO of IN-FLIGHT Data and member of the Métis Nation.
“Indigenous communities should be fully included in the future of that technology and not just watching it from the sidelines.”
The course gives Stoney Nakoda Nation members a chance to earn their advanced drone pilot licence, opening up job opportunities across industries.
“Drone technology is creating real opportunities in areas like environmental monitoring, inspections, mapping, emergency support, infrastructure. There’s a whole ton of technical fields,” Healy said.
Offered online so students don’t have to travel, the course, which involves 20-hours of instruction, equips students to take their Transport Canada advanced drone exam, which is a launchpad towards commercial and professional drone operations.
“They’re very well prepared to do that and once they have that advanced licence, now they can go and fly drones in advanced environments,” said Healy. “It’s a world of possibilities for them.”
Beginning on Saturday (April 25) and wrapping up in June, the course is offered at no cost to Stoney Nakoda Nation members and members of the Métis Nation and Healy says the program is still open to last-minute applicants.
“We’re very encouraged by the response that we got. We have almost 40 students in the class. They’re all really strong students and it really speaks to the level of interest and engagement that we have around this,” he said.
A graduate of last year’s program, Pascal Richard, who works in the Stoney Nakoda community with Stoney Tribal Administration as a permit coordinator, called the program an “amazing” experience.
“It’s a powerful tool to have and I truly believe it’s the future,” said Richard.
Richard says the training has already been useful for his work on the Nation, including for precision mapping when issuing permits, monitoring the Nation’s borders and within the emergency management team whose firefighters use drones to capture aerial views of a fire scene.
“I believe that every year they find a different application. If it’s not agriculture, it’s commercial. It’s the safety of the border between Canada and the U.S., as an example. There’s just so many jobs in the future to come with that. It’s good to have in your toolbox,” he said.
“I’m working on the Nation now, but I’m sure if I put it out there that I have that pilot certificate, I’d have a chance to get hired by some companies for sure.”
The program has run twice within Stoney Nakoda First Nation, with one year involving a partnership with the RCMP, Healy says, adding that IN-FLIGHT Data has also been offering the course for free to the Métis Nation of Alberta since 2023.
“It’s really important, as an Indigenous organization, for us to share our knowledge and our stories with other Indigenous Nations and peoples in a way that breaks through the socioeconomic barriers that they might exist, to let them know that this is something they can absolutely do, this is something they’re absolutely capable of doing and we want to be there to help them,” Healy said.
Offering Transport Canada registered training courses with the company for over a decade, Healy has seen the program “connect to real work,” noting that Indigenous graduates have gone on to receive raises, job opportunities and often have a new confidence on the other side of the course.
“Especially in the Indigenous space, many times they’ve never received opportunities like this, so you see growing confidence very quickly and they begin to understand that this technology is not foreign, it doesn’t have to be scary, and they can learn with it… and potentially build a future around it,” he said.
To register for the course visit: inflightdata.ca