Drone Delivery Canada (DDC), an Ontario-based drone logistics platform for government and corporate organizations, wants to roll out commercial drone deliveries by late 2017 or early 2018 at the latest.

And in a step in the right direction, DDC has expanding its current testing to include Transport Canada’s first approved drone test range in Foremost, Alberta, an area of about 927 square miles that will help the company prove its delivery drones can haul goods across long distances using satellite guidance.

DDC has already been testing its delivery drones in the Waterloo region.

“We are the first drone delivery company in Canada to commence commercial testing with our recently announced customers at the Foremost Aerodrome focusing on Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) capabilities,” says Tony Di Benedetto, CEO of Drone Delivery Canada. “This progression marks a significant milestone for us as we move closer in obtaining our compliant operator certification status to operate commercially with our customers in Canada. To this end, we are now seeing greater visibility and our customer appetite for our drone delivery logistic platform remains very strong.”

DDC says it will be testing with existing customers in the first quarter of 2017. Its delivery drones will primarily serve northern areas of Canada where accessible roads are few and far between. The DDC’s delivery drones could supply these areas with medical supplies and other goods on demand.

In December 2016, DDC partnered with NAPA, one of Canada’s largest automotive parts companies, to test a drone delivery platform.