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Transport Canada regulates drone flight, and the requirements attach to both the aircraft and the pilot. A small remotely piloted aircraft weighing at least 250 grams and not more than 25 kilograms must be registered before it flies, and the registration number must be marked visibly on the aircraft, by permanent marker, permanent label or engraving. A drone under 250 grams does not need to be registered unless something attached to it brings it to 250 grams or more, though the rules for those smaller aircraft still apply.

Pilot certificates match the category of operation. Basic operations have a minimum age of 14, keep the drone within visual line-of-sight, and do not permit flight close to bystanders. Advanced operations have a minimum age of 16 and are what allow flying closer to or over people and operating in controlled airspace with permission from air traffic control, subject to safety requirements for the aircraft itself. Most commercial filming in a populated area, near a crowd or anywhere near an airport falls into the advanced category rather than the basic one.

Because the drone regulations were updated in 2025 and continue to evolve, including additional categories beyond small aircraft, verify the current requirements with Transport Canada for your specific shoot instead of relying on what a crew did last year. Before a shoot involving aerials, ask to see the pilot certificate, the drone's registration, and how the crew intends to handle bystanders and airspace on the day. A production company that treats these questions as routine is the one you want on a rooftop.

Every borrowed element in a video carries a licence, and a licence is defined by its limits: which media it covers, which territories, how long it lasts, and whether it extends to paid advertising. A track cleared for an organic social post is not automatically cleared for a television spot or a paid campaign, and that distinction is where most disputes begin. Ask for a rights schedule listing each asset, its source, the scope of its licence and the date it expires.

Music is the usual trouble. A personal streaming subscription grants you nothing for a client video. Production music libraries exist precisely to solve this, licensing by project or by seat with terms written for commercial use. A well-known commercial recording is a different matter: using it means clearing rights with the parties who hold them, and that is a negotiation rather than a checkout button. Composed music avoids the question entirely and can be assigned to you outright.

For context on how collective licensing works in Canada, the Copyright Board of Canada is the federal body that sets tariffs and royalties for collective societies and administers a licensing scheme for works whose copyright owners cannot be located. That scheme is a real route for genuine orphan works, not a shortcut around clearing a track you simply could not get permission for.

A release is the written permission that makes footage of a person usable. There is a statutory backdrop to this: the Copyright Act gives a performer copyright in their performance, including the sole right to fix it in any material form and to control reproductions of a fixation, which is one reason performers sign before the camera rolls rather than after the edit is locked. A release should name the media it covers, the territory and the term, and should be signed by a parent or guardian where the participant is a child.

Employees who appear need to be covered for as long as the video will run, because people leave, and a recruitment film featuring someone who resigned two years ago is a problem only if nobody thought about it in advance. Members of the public captured incidentally in a busy location call for signage, crowd notices or, better, a shooting plan that avoids identifiable faces you have no permission for.

Locations need permission from whoever controls them, and recognizable private property is not a public backdrop simply because it can be seen from the street. Municipal filming permits may be required for public streets, road closures, or the parking a crew needs, and rules vary by city. At the end of the project, ask who holds the signed releases and location agreements. The answer should be you, filed with the finished video, not a folder on an editor's laptop.