One problem with using the 3rd level (province-specific) domain name is, if the company or organization expands their scope across Canada (even if just partially), they will probably regret the province-specific implication of their domain name. Although, the last time I read the CIRA rules (several years ago), the 2nd level (direct .ca) would be waiting for them, because other than special cases like hydro, a 3rd level registration reserves (makes unavailable to others) the 2nd level, and a 2nd level registration reserves (makes unavailable to others) all the provincial 3rd level variants.
I should re-visit the CIRA rules on this, although I would only choose 2nd level in any case.
Hartmut
They're invalid because there aren't organizations with those names, not because they somehow all chose hydro.ca. instead.
I agree, however, that 3-level domains are hugely on the decline in Canada... and I'm quite sad about that.
-Adam
From: Hartmut W Sager <hwsager@marityme.net>
Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2025 1:26:26 AM
To: MUUG - Round Table <roundtable@muug.ca>
Subject: [RndTbl] Re: muug.mb.ca decomissioned for email
Good! Those provincial subdomains of .ca (resulting in 3rd level domains) have gone into almost total disuse in Canada. Even exceptions like hydro.mb.ca, where each province could
legitimately want to do the same thing, is not being used much anymore. I just spot-checked hydro.on.ca and hydro.ns.ca, and they are invalid.
Hartmut
We have decommissioned
muug.mb.ca for incoming email as of today. If you
have aliases/contacts/whatever set to use that domain for email, please
muug.mb.ca will continue to work for other purposes, such as web access.
We are disabling email to it to reduce incoming spam.
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