Evidence of meeting #141 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was stripe.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director, Public Policy, Stripe
I would be happy to follow up with you. Perhaps in a more private setting, I can give you a little bit more—
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
No, it's not a private setting. You're telling us right now under oath at a committee that there are management people who cannot disclose information. You know who they are. I would like to know who they are and the addresses, so that the clerk and our researchers can actually engage those individuals.
Director, Public Policy, Stripe
I'd be happy to follow up with you, but I can tell you a company-wide policy.... We're a private company, and you're asking for private, sensitive business information. We are under no obligation to provide anything like that.
We would like to give you a deeper understanding of how our business works, and I would be happy to do that.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
I'm asking you right now. You were telling us you can't give us information.
This is a public hearing and I'm asking for specific information that is being denied to me.
I would like to know and, under our laws, I think I have the right to know, who is making that decision. I may not get that information but, at the same time, we, as a committee, should know who that person is and where they actually operate from. We should know who is making decisions that Mr. Peters is providing testimony for in front of us today.
I would like to know specifically why Stripe can't provide that type of information of where they actually operate from and who they are. I don't think that's going to compromise their company.
Director, Public Policy, Stripe
Mr. Masse, I would be happy to give you a better sense of how we operate and where our employees are distributed around the world. Much of that information is actually on our website.
To the extent that I can give you some sort of broader understanding of the way our business works and, effectively, what we do to support small businesses, which is what I thought was the subject of the hearing today, I'd be happy to do that.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
It is, but the issue is that we have a cost issue being passed on to individuals like convenience stores—like Mr. Brownlee and others—and we're trying to get an understanding in terms of the value of Stripe and other types of businesses in this. All I'm simply asking is who actually runs Stripe in Canada, where they're located and how we contact them.
Mr. Peters, where do you work from? Where do you actually have your office?
Director, Public Policy, Stripe
I'm responsible for public policy in Canada. I am a good point of contact for the committee and for any member of Parliament who would like to understand Stripe better.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Okay. What's the address in Washington, D.C.? You came in from Washington, D.C., to our committee, and I had to actually spend most of my time just to drill down on that point.
I'll conclude, Mr. Chair, that this is totally unacceptable. We can't even get an idea of Stripe in Canada without actually having to spend time on the committee like this.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Thank you, Chair.
Mr. Peters, on your website, Stripe says it wouldn't be passing along the savings from the government's announcement with their deal with Visa and Mastercard to lower fees for small businesses on some pricing models due to their “credit card processing in Canada for businesses on standard pricing increased by 0.036% (or 3.6 bps), primarily due to the recent reintroduction of GST/HST taxes for certain card network scheme fees.”
Has Stripe ever lobbied the Canadian federal government on this issue?
Director, Public Policy, Stripe
I have been engaged with the Department of Finance on this, yes. When we first learned that this was under consideration, that there was a negotiation going on and that it would be, effectively, a reduction for a subset—
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
When did you interact with the government on that?
Director, Public Policy, Stripe
I have been here in Ottawa multiple times over the past two years, so it was over a period of time.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Did that posture come from any direction from the board?
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Stripe lobbies the federal government on a wide variety of economic policy including, but not limited to, taxation policy. Is that correct?
Director, Public Policy, Stripe
We do engage in a number of areas, particularly areas that would improve competition and, overall, lower costs in the payment space. Things like open banking, access to the real-time rail—
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Since he accepted the role of economic adviser to the Prime Minister, has Stripe required its board member, Mark Carney, to undertake any sort of preventative compliance measure to ensure that it does not run afoul of federal lobbying rules?
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
But you would know, is there a preventative compliance measure to ensure that now you have a board member who is directly writing economic policy that ostensibly would benefit Stripe, that Stripe does not run afoul of federal lobbying rules?
Director, Public Policy, Stripe
Again, I'm not engaged with the board, but I'll try to answer your question.
In this instance—
