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Email Management Services Configuration Requirements

Note to reader

The Government of Canada’s Chief Information Officer’s direction is to support employees wishing to add their pronouns as part of their emails to foster a more gender inclusive workplace.

Current policy requirements from the Email Management Services Configuration Requirements, under the Standard on Enterprise Information Technology Service Common Configurations, provides the flexibility for employees to add their personal gender pronouns to their email display name, if they wish to do so, where this functionality is available in their departments. These requirements provide key information to identify the sender of the email and the use of pronouns forms part of a person’s identity.

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1. General email requirements

1.1 Ensure that the email tenant is visible to other GC tenants through the use of a shared global address list.

1.2 Provide the following organizations with accounts that have required privileges to perform the following functions:

1.3 Ensure that the sender or recipient of government email can be verified using inbound mail using the Sender Policy Framework; Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM); and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC). Such verification includes implementing email domain protection with the following configurations:

1.4 The size of email boxes should be no larger than 100 gigabytes (GB) and no smaller than 25 GB.

1.5 Ensure that dormant and deactivated email accounts are managed effectively, including the transfer of information of business value to designated corporate repositories and appropriate disposition.

1.6 Ensure permanent disposition of email within the deleted items folder of each email account within 60 days.

1.7 Implement protective markings for email to ensure that appropriate security controls are applied to information, in alignment with the Directive on Security Management: Appendix J – Standard on Security Categorization.

2. Naming conventions for domains

2.1 To clearly identify GC email communications, each email account must have:

2.2 The email address suffix must comply with official languages requirements.

2.3 In the case of a unilingual primary domain name, domain names are to be combined into a bilingual hyphenated domain name.

2.4 The order of departmental acronyms for the primary email domain should comply with what is specified in the Directive on Official Languages for Communications and Services, subsection 6.1.1.

2.5 To promote the use of either bilingual suffix in email communications and to prevent confusion regarding domain language order, the alternate bilingual acronym order domain suffix should also be created for the department as an alias to the primary domain acronym.

Departments that have a single bilingual suffix (for example, @justice.gc.ca) are not subject to this requirement.

Examples

3. Naming conventions for enterprise email addresses

3.1 For the purposes of official external correspondence, departments may request, subject to TBS approval, the creation of a GC enterprise email address that is not linked to a department or individual employee.

3.2 Departmental CIOs should send all requests for enterprise email addresses to the Service and Digital Enquiries mailbox. Requests should include the specific email address requested and a rationale for creating the address.

3.3 Enterprise email addresses may be established for GC priorities and/or cross-mandate programs and services.

3.4 Conflicts may arise in naming enterprise email addresses. In these situations, it is up to the email administrator to resolve such conflicts.

3.5 The enterprise email address prefix must comply with official languages requirements. Departments may choose one of the options below for GC enterprise email addresses:

4. Email address for individual email accounts

4.1 PreferredName.LastName is the naming convention to be applied. The preferred name can be a first or middle name.

Model

Examples

4.2 Where a conflict exists for the use of a particular name, the person’s initials or a numerical tiebreaker is to be applied immediately after the last name. Numerical tiebreakers start with the number 2. Subsequent tiebreaker numbers are to be applied sequentially.

Model

Examples

4.3 GC email addresses become available for reuse as needed after a period of two years.

5. Email addresses for generic programs and services or other uses

Generic email addresses

5.1For the purpose of official correspondence, a department may establish a generic email address that is not linked to an individual employee:

5.2 The email address prefix must comply with official languages requirements.

5.3 Conflicts may arise in naming email addresses. In these situations, it is up to the email administrator to resolve such conflicts.

5.4 An alias email may be added for longer program or service names but must also comply with official language requirements.

Examples

Generic email addresses for programs or services

5.5 For @canada.ca departmental emails, the generic email addresses for programs or services must include the departmental abbreviation, as prescribed in the Federal Identity Program registry of applied titles in both official languages.

Generic email addresses for resources

5.6 For @canada.ca departmental emails, generic email addresses for the purpose of resource management must include the departmental abbreviation, as prescribed in the Federal Identity Program registry of applied titles in both official languages.

6. Email properties

6.1 The requirements described in this appendix are applied by the email administrator (SSC or departmental email administrators in departments that administer their own email service).

6.2 Email properties provide information used by email services and email clients to identify the sender of email.

6.3 Display name property

Display name property

6.4 Display name for email addresses for individuals

6.5 Display names for generic email addresses for programs and services

6.6 Display name for generic email addresses for resource management

Company name property

6.7 The company name property must contain the elements described below:

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