Alex Reid

I’m starting to like CIRA more and more. I received an invitation to a survey earlier. It seems that CIRA is expecting a surplus. The aren’t releasing any numbers, as far as I can find, but it sounds like a large profit. But because CIRA is a non-profit organization setup as a governing body under Industry Canada, it is not allowed to have a profit. It has in the past, held a growing surplus and in reaction, has edged the cost of .ca domain names lower and lower.

For CIRA members, .ca domain names only cost $8.50 now. Other traditional domain names like .com and .net only cost $4-5 per domain. But those are member prices, and ICANN (.com domains) memberships cost around $7000 while CIRA only costs a couple thousand dollars. Another big difference is CIRA comes off as more socially responsible.

Case in point, one of CIRA’s survey questions is:

Do you agree with the Board Committee’s proposed recommendation to allocate excess revenues, should they occur, to causes and activities which serve Canada’s future social and economic development through the promotion and development of electronic commerce in Canada?

YES! It’s a step in right direction.