The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) () is the organization that manages the .ca country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Canada. Its offices are located at 979 Bank Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. CIRA sets the policies and agendas that support Canada's Internet community and Canada's involvement in international Internet governance. It is a member-driven organization with membership open to all that hold a .ca domain. As of January 2021, there were more than 3 million active .ca domains. History Inception In May 1987, the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, delegated the ccTLD .ca to the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada. The university was named the sponsoring delegation for .ca. John Demco, the university's Computing Facilities Manager for the Department of Computer Science, would be its administrator and technical contact. For ten years, under his leadership, a group of volunteers managed the .ca domain. In 1997, the Canadian Internet community, part of an evolving and rapidly expanding Internet, wanted changes with the administration of the .ca domain. After its annual conference, it formed the Canadian Domain Names Consultation Committee. After public consultations, the committee's recommendation was to form a private-sector, not-for-profit corporation to administer the .ca domain in Canada. On 30 December 1998, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority was incorporated, and in an 11 March 1999 letter, the Government of Canada officially recognized CIRA as the authority to manage the .ca domain for Canada. On 9 May 2000, CIRA, the University of British Columbia, and the Government of Canada entered into an Umbrella Agreement that stated: "the .ca domain space should be developed as a key public resource for social and economic development for all Canadians". On 10 October 2000, Industry Canada sent a letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) formally designating CIRA as the Government of Canada's designee for the .ca domain. On 30 November 2000, CIRA sent ICANN a letter requesting a redelegation of the ccTLD .ca domain, effective 1 December 2000. ICANN agreed, and on that day, the ccTLD .ca was redelegated to CIRA, effectively transitioning all .ca domains from UBC to CIRA. By 30 November 2000, it had registered approximately 120,000 .ca domain names. In March 2001, CIRA initiated the process to elect its first Board of Directors. In May 2001, it opened its offices in Ottawa, Ontario and in June 2001,