Should your business use a .ca domain? Who can register one, how, and how not to lose it

3.1Who can register a .ca

Unlike most domain endings, .ca has a residency test. CIRA calls it the Canadian Presence Requirements for Registrants, and it has applied to registrations made on or after November 8, 2000.

The eligible categories include, among others:

• Canadian citizens of the age of majority. They do not have to live in Canada.
• Permanent residents who are “ordinarily resident” in Canada.
• Corporations under the laws of Canada or of any province or territory.
• Partnerships, associations and trusts that meet CIRA’s Canadian conditions.
• Educational institutions, libraries, archives, museums, hospitals and governments.
• Owners of a trademark registered in Canada. This category is narrow: the domain must consist of or include the exact word component of the registered trademark.

CIRA defines “ordinarily resident” as living in Canada for more than 183 days in the twelve months before the application, and in each twelve-month period after that for as long as the domain is held. In other words, it is a continuing condition, not a one-time check.

For a typical small business, the practical question is simple: register the domain in the name of the business if it is incorporated, or in the owner’s name if it is a sole proprietorship and the owner qualifies as an individual.

3.2You buy through a registrar, not CIRA

CIRA’s registrar list page is explicit: “While CIRA manages the .CA registry, we do not sell .CA domain names.” You register through a CIRA Certified Registrar, which is a company that sells domains and often hosting or email too. CIRA publishes the list of certified registrars on its site.

When you register, you accept a registrant agreement and choose the Canadian presence category that applies to you. CIRA’s pages note that you have five days to accept the registrant agreement after registering, or the domain becomes available again. Do not let that confirmation email sit unread.

A .ca can be registered for one to ten years at a time.

Privacy for individuals

If you register as an individual Canadian citizen or permanent resident, CIRA says you automatically get free privacy protection in its WHOIS lookup. For a sole proprietor working from home, that matters: your personal details are not published for anyone to look up.

3.3French accented names

Since 2012, CIRA has supported French accented characters in .ca names: é, ë, ê, è, â, à, æ, ô, œ, ù, û, ü, ç, î, ï and ÿ.

The detail worth knowing is how variants work. When someone registers a .ca, CIRA reserves every accented version of that name for them in what it calls an “administrative bundle.” But reserved does not mean working. Each variant you want to use has to be registered separately, with the same registrar, and not every registrar offers accented names.

If your business name has an accent, whether a café or an épicerie, consider registering both the plain and the accented version and pointing one at the other. Customers will type both.

3.4How a .ca expires, step by step

This is the section I would print out. The risk it guards against is not a hack; it is a renewal notice that went to an old email address.

From CIRA’s description of the domain name life cycle:

1. Expiry date. On the expiry date, CIRA automatically renews the domain for one year at the registry level. You still need to renew with your registrar to keep it. Your registrar can cancel that automatic renewal if you have not paid.
2. Auto-renew grace period, up to 45 days. CIRA’s rules allow the registrar to delete the domain during a 45-day window after the automatic renewal. How long you actually get depends on your registrar’s own policy, and during this period your website and email may stop working.
3. Redemption grace period, 30 days. If you have not renewed, the domain is deleted and enters a 30-day redemption period. Websites and email on it stop working. You can still ask your registrar to restore it, and some registrars add a recovery fee. CIRA describes this as the final chance to renew.
4. To Be Released. After redemption, the domain goes to CIRA’s To Be Released list for a short period, then returns to general registration, where anyone can register it.

The lesson: by the time your site goes dark, you may already be in the grace period with an unknown number of days left.

3.5How to not lose your .ca

• Register it in the right name. The business, if incorporated. Not your web designer, not a relative.
• Use a contact email you will keep. An address on the domain itself is risky: if the domain lapses, so does the email that would have warned you. Use a second address you check.
• Turn on auto-renew at your registrar, and keep the payment card on file current.
• Register for several years if you are sure about the name. Up to ten is allowed.
• Put the expiry date in your calendar a month ahead, regardless of auto-renew.
• Keep a one-line record of which registrar holds the domain and who has the login.

3.6Should you also own the .com?

For many businesses, yes, if it is available at a reasonable price: register both, choose one as the main address, and redirect the other to it. That protects you from a competitor or a squatter on the other ending, and from customers typing the one you did not choose.

But if your customers are local, the .ca is a quiet signal worth sending. I’m Sal Talash, and I write about websites, domains and running a business online in Canada at saltalash.vercel.app.