CA Domain Names
.CA domains are unique from other domain types like .com, .net or .org. There are two special domain types: 1. Municipal Domain Names, and 2. Conflicting or "Blocked" Domain Names. Municipal Domain Names CIRA has reserved a domain name for every village and town in Canada. The syntax for these names is: Qualifier.name.province.ca where 'qualifier' is town, village, etc. (examples: city.toronto.on.ca and town.orangeville.on.ca) Registration orders for these names are submitted like normal orders. However, CIRA has instituted a manual process to complete the registration. Once the order has been submitted, it is reviewed for completeness. If the order appears to be a legitimate registration, the order is submitted to CIRA. At this point, the registrant should fax a letter to CIRA verifying the claim to the name. Once the order is successfully submitted, the registrant is provided with instructions for completing the order! Conflicting or "Blocked" Domain Names Once a .ca name (or it's provincial variant) has been registered, all other variants of that name are blocked to other registrants. For example, if the name smith.on.ca was registered to Jessica Smith, then only Jessica Smith could register smith.qc.ca (or any other provincial variant) or smith.ca. Jessica Smith can order any and all of the other variants of her name by linking the new registration request to the existing CIRA profile. Jessica Smith can also grant permission to any other party that is eligible for .ca names to register one or some of the other variants of her name. To place a request for a 'blocked' name, simply enter the order as you normally would for a .ca name. Our systems will determine that the name has other variants, and will engage the blocker process. The system emails the administrative contacts of all the 'blocking' domains to get their approval. If all blocking parties agree to grant the new name to your Registrant, our system will send the registration command to CIRA. If you already own a domain and are trying to obtain the provincial variant, you should "add the domain to your existing CIRA profile" by selecting YES to this option on the order form. If you have the only variant of this name, you will not enter the "blocker" process.