Military drones put to good use
By Emily Senger - Wednesday, January 2, 2013 - 0 Comments
Keeping track of cattle and, perhaps one day, delivering the mail are emerging applications for UAVs
An Aeryon Scout flying. (Courtesy: Aeryon Labs)
A fledgling company in southern Alberta is sending drone technology originally designed for the military into the sky to take pictures of sugar beets, potatoes and even cattle in an effort to help farmers better manage their crops and livestock. The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used by Lethbridge-based Isis Geomatics can fit in a backpack when disassembled and, when launched, use cameras to tag each part of a field with an exact location. A farmer can then scan the images to determine where to apply water or fertilizer or keep track of cattle.
Agriculture is just one emerging commercial application for UAVs. Drones, such as those manufactured at Waterloo, Ont.-based Aeryon Labs, are becoming easy enough for anyone to operate; they’ve been used so far for wildlife surveys and to map shipping routes. Isis hopes to add oil- and gas-field surveying to its services. Other firms are planning to use drones as super-efficient couriers in remote areas. “People are recognizing the opportunities,” says Aeryon Labs’ vice-president of marketing, Ian McDonald.
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AccountabilityWatch Extra: First a dart, now a laurel.
By kadyomalley - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 1:01 PM - 4 Comments
Never let it be said that, during her periodic forays into AccountabilityWatch-ing , ITQ doesn’t report on the good news as well as the bad.
She was, as noted below, somewhat frustrated to find out that the identities of those who apply for an exemption from the five year ban on lobbying are shrouded from prying eyes unless their request is approved by the commissioner.
On the flipside, however, she is entirely delighted to discover that the Office of the Lobbying Commissioner has finally made it clear that, as ITQ put it earlier this year, all lobbyist disclosures are not created equal.
Pull up an entry from the communications log database that was filed by an in-house – or “corporate” lobbyist – and the following text now appears at the bottom:
The above name is that of the most senior paid officer who is responsible for filing a return for a corporation or organization (the Registrant), whether that person participated in this communication or not. Indeed, the Lobbyists Registration Regulations do not require that the names of in-house lobbyists (i.e. employees of corporations or organizations) who actually participated in this communication with a designated public office holder be disclosed.
In other words, just because it looks like Alliance of Manufacturers and Exporters Jayson Myers has gotten face time with the Prime Minister, four cabinet ministers and Canada’s current Ambassador to the United States over the last eight months, it doesn’t actually mean that he was present at every one of those meetings. It could have been any one of the 25 AMEC staffers listed in his registration. Consultant lobbyists, however, are still required to file communications reports under their own names. Why the double standard?
ITQ still doesn’t know – but at least now there’s less chance of confusion.
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AccountabilityWatch: Hey, remember that five year ban on lobbying by former public office holders?
By kadyomalley - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 12:01 PM - 5 Comments
Oh, don’t worry, it’s still in place. But according to a spokesperson for interim Lobbying Commissioner Karen Shepherd, since the new rules came into effect last July, the office has received seven requests for exemption to the five year ban.
