Bracing for thousands of Canadians unwrapping their first drones Christmas morning, the federal government has launched a snitch line to report reckless and dangerous use of the miniature aircraft.

London Liberal MP Kate Young announced the safety campaign Wednesday, saying Ottawa doesn’t want to stifle the emerging drone industry but it does want to prevent disasters.

“If you were to fly a drone near an airplane, the potential is catastrophic,” said the London West MP, the parliamentary secretary to Transport Minister Marc Garneau.

More drone regulations, including minimum age requirements and aircraft registration, are expected to be released in the spring as Ottawa tries to catch up on the exploding sector whose sales are increasing so fast, the feds have issued 73 per cent more certificates to operate drones this year than last.

The new online tool announced Wednesday, a kind of digital snitch line, allows Canadians to report drone incidents from their mobile phones.

Transport Canada will use the reports to investigate, Young said.

Hazards to aircraft, especially jets into whose engines they can be sucked, drones have already grabbed headlines in Canada flying too close to airports and for crashes into traffic and in built-up areas.

Anyone who operates one recklessly or negligently, or who endangers aircraft safety, can face fines of up to $25,000 or prison time.

“People get one for Christmas and they think, ‘Oh, this is fun.’ It can be fun,but it is not a toy and we want people to be aware of that,” said Young.

A drone is suspected as the reason a Porter Airline pilot last month had to put the plane into a steep dive to avoid an unidentified flying object over Lake Ontario.

Last summer, a medical helicopter flying to Chatham from London’s airport was dangerously distracted by one of the unmanned drones flying illegally nearby, authorities said.

The Department of Transport had received more than 100 complaints of improper drone use before the online reporting system was launched, Young said.

“We know a lot of people are not using them as safely as they should,” she said.

London drone enthusiast Joe O’Neil said he believes there’s more than just safety concerns behind the new drone-incident reporting system.

Commercial drone operators, people who have taken courses and bought the required insurance so they can sell their services to sectors such as real estate companies, are being undercut by drone buyers who skip the legal requirements and taxes, said O’Neil, who often posts photographs of London taken from his drones.

“They are like the tradesmen that come along and say I’ll install your toilet for cash but won’t report the HST or GST or pay any taxes,” said O’Neil, a London heritage activist.

“It will probably be the legitimate commercial drone operators that will be using the reporting system the most,” he said.

In overhauling the country’s drone regulations, Ottawa is relaxing some rules and tightening others, said Stephen Patterson, chair of the school of aviation technology at Fanshawe College in London.

Dropped for some commercial uses is the requirement to obtain a special flight operating certificate for flying a drone in a built-up area, he said.

“They are relaxing some standards but making people more aware of them,” Patterson said.

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Do’s and Don’ts for recreational drone operators

From Transport Canada:

Do:

— Fly your drone during daylight and in good weather.

— Keep your drone where you can see it with your own eyes – not through an on-board camera, monitor, or smartphone.

— Make sure your drone is safe for flight before take-off. Ask yourself, for example: Are the batteries fully charged? Is it too cold to fly?

— Respect the privacy of others. Avoid flying over private property or taking photos or videos without permission.

Don’t:

— Fly in clouds or fog.

— Fly closer than nine km (five nm) from any aerodrome (i.e., any airport, heliport, helipad, or seaplane base).

— Fly higher than 90 m (300 feet) above the ground.

— Fly closer than 150 m (500 feet) from people, animals, buildings, structures, or vehicles.

— Fly in populated areas or near large groups of people, including at sporting events, concerts, festivals, or firework shows.

— Fly near moving vehicles, highways, bridges, busy streets, or anywhere you could endanger or distract drivers.

— Fly within restricted and controlled airspace, including near or over military bases, prisons, or forest fires.

—fly anywhere where you might interfere with first responders.

jminer@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/JohnatLFPress

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TO FILE A REPORT

Go to Transport Canada’s website, tc.gc.ca, and search drone incident report form