Canadian Internet Registration Authority

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) (French: Autorité canadienne pour les enregistrements Internet ACEI) is the organization that manages the .CA country code top-level domain, the policies that support Canada’s Internet community and Canada’s involvement in international Internet governance. CIRA is a member-driven organization. Membership in CIRA is included in the cost of a .CA domain, and open to anyone who holds a .CA domain. There are approximately 15,000 CIRA members as of January 2013.

In November 2012, CIRA celebrated 2,000,000 .CA domains under management, making .CA the 19th largest top-level domain in the world.

CIRA was incorporated in 1998 and assumed operation of .CA on December 1, 2000 from the University of British Columbia. CIRA is currently based in the national capital, Ottawa, Ontario.

A Board of Directors, consisting of both elected and appointed members, sets CIRA's strategic directions. Board members are elected annually by CIRA Members through an online process.

In September 2012, CIRA held a DNSSEC key signing ceremony, and published a signed .CA zone file in January 2013.

Other Canadian web registrars suggest that management of the dot-ca top level domain should be opened up to competition by allowing private companies to bid on the job of managing it. CIRA currently has a monopoly on .CA top-level domain management.

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