 http://strategis ic.gc.ca
OCT 10 2000 Mr. Michael Roberts Dear Mr. Roberts: As you know, the .ca top level domain has been administered by John Demco of the University of British Columbia (UBC) since 1987, with the assistance of a committee of volunteers from across Canada. Mr. Demco and his committee, among other responsibilities, set and implemented the policies and procedures for registering domain names within the .ca domain space. Initially, these policies were appropriate for the size and role of the Internet in Canada, however with the growth of the Internet and electronic commerce, the local Internet community in Canada began contemplating a change. In 1997, at the Canadian Internet community's annual conference, discussions of reform led to the formation of the Canadian Domain Names Consultative Committee to address the transition from the current management of the .ca domain to a "more commercial type of operation". Following a public consultation, the CDNCC recommended that a private sector, not-for-profit corporation be set up to take over the administration of the .ca from UBC and John Demco. In late December 1998, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) was incorporated to assume this function. On March 11, 1999, in a letter on which you were copied, the Canadian government formally recognized CIRA as the new administrator of the .ca. CIRA and UBC then engaged in discussions regarding the details of the transition of administrative responsibility for the .ca These discussions were successfully completed in May, 2000, and CIRA, UBC and the Government of Canada entered into the attached contract, the "Umbrella Agreement". This agreement provides that the Government of Canada will designate CIRA to be the new administrator of the .ca and that CIRA will manage the .ca in accordance with principles set by the Government of Canada in the March 11, 1999 letter referred to above and any additional principles that are in the public interest and reasonable. The Umbrella Agreement contains the communication between the Government of Canada and CIRA that is contemplated by the "Principles for the Delegation and Re-delegation of Country Code Top Level Domains" adopted by the Government Advisory Committee to ICANN (GAC Principles). This letter constitutes the "communication" between the Government of Canada and ICANN recommended in the same Principles. I am confident that ICANN and CIRA will be able to enter into the third communication contemplated in the GAC Principles. Canada's approach in this re-delegation request is therefore consistent with the GAC Principles and demonstrates the effectiveness of this system for redelegation requests. I am pleased to formally designate CIRA as the Government of Canada's designee to be the .ca delegee. I request that ICANN, through its IANA functions, effect the necessary changes to the Internet's "A" root server to accomplish this re-delegation. CIRA will be assuming its responsibilities on November 1, 2000. I would anticipate that the change in the "A" root server would occur on this date, but I would ask that ICANN and CIRA discuss directly its exact timing. The relevant contact within the Government of Canada for matters related to this letter is: Mr. Drew Olsen, Thank you for your attention to this request.
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