Evidence of meeting #152 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.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joël Lightbound
Ms. Rempel Garner, I'm sorry to interrupt again. The interpreters say that the headset needs to be selected differently.
Madam Clerk, I don't know if you want to intervene, or if IT can reach out.
To your point, Mr. Masse, it appears that the proper headset needs to be selected.
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Stripe, Inc.
My apologies for the trouble. We tested all of this yesterday. It seemed to be working then.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joël Lightbound
It doesn't seem to be working now.
I'll suspend for a few minutes.
IT will reach out to you, Mr. Collison.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joël Lightbound
I call the meeting back, colleagues.
Everything seems to be working. We'll start anew.
Ms. Rempel Garner, the floor is yours for six minutes.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Thank you, Chair.
Mr. Collison, I'll pick up where I left off.
Just to clarify, the Canadian federal government has not contacted you or your company to instruct you to pass along the savings on interchange fees offered from Visa and Mastercard to small businesses. They have not contacted you to pass those savings along to Canadian small businesses. Is that correct?
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Stripe, Inc.
I'll just clarify. In our view, we have passed the savings along.
Has the federal government contacted us on this matter? Not to my knowledge.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Earlier this week at committee, Canada's current finance minister said that she would intervene if your company did not pass these savings along. There's a story in Canada's Globe and Mail this morning that one of your board members, Mark Carney, has been in talks with Canada's Prime Minister to join the cabinet in the position of finance minister.
Has he informed you or Stripe's board of these talks?
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Stripe, Inc.
I have not discussed anything pertaining to these matters with him, nor, I believe, has anyone on the board, so no.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Do you think it's problematic that you are facing questioning by a Canadian parliamentary committee on the failure of your company to pass along savings from interchange fees to Canadian small businesses and the current finance minister has said that she would intervene? They have not contacted you yet, and then, this morning, there's a story in the Globe and Mail that one of your board members is in talks with the Prime Minister to become the finance minister.
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Stripe, Inc.
It seems very proper to me that these are completely separate issues and kept very distinct.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
This year, Mr. Carney accepted a senior economic advisory role with the Liberal Party. Did your company put in place any guardrails or screens to prevent Mr. Carney from perhaps seeing or having input on any Canadian public policy decisions after that point?
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Stripe, Inc.
We have not discussed any Canadian public policy decisions at the board level.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
I asked you if you put any screens in place, because I just have to take your word for it that happened, as a public policy-maker. He also sent out a highly partisan fundraising email for the Liberal Party. Did you put in place any screens given his economic advisory role?
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Stripe, Inc.
We do standard conflict policy at the board, like most companies, and conflicts have to be disclosed to our general counsel, but I'd say that as a general matter board members tend to have political views, and lots of board members at different companies are politically active in some form, so this doesn't seem out of the ordinary to us.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Is it not out of the ordinary for one of your board members to be in talks to become Canada's next finance minister after the current finance minister said at a committee earlier this week that she would be intervening due to your company not passing along savings from interchange fees to small businesses? You don't think there's any potential conflict that Mr. Carney would now require a screen for? That sounds a little problematic.
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Stripe, Inc.
Well, as I said, he's not been involved in these discussions.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Again, what assurances do we have to take your word for that? You said that he has to disclose any potential conflicts to your counsel. Has he disclosed any potential conflicts to you, like, say, being the senior economic adviser to the Prime Minister of a country in which you are operating to a significant degree?
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Stripe, Inc.
I have not been privy to those discussions. I can't speak to what disclosures he's made.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
You don't know whether or not one of your senior board members, whom your company touted as a major boon to your board, has disclosed any conflicts of interest given that he now has a senior economic advisory role with the federal Liberal Party, and now there's a conflict between the current finance minister and a story in The Globe and Mail that he's about to become the finance minister, and you're not sure if he has disclosed any conflicts to your counsel.
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Stripe, Inc.
I'm just not privy to those discussions and, as I said, issues pertaining to Canadian public policy just have not, at any point, been topics of board discussion.
Conservative
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Stripe, Inc.
I should be which...?
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Do you think that maybe you should be privy, given that you're sitting in front of a Canadian parliamentary committee after members of this committee have heard from small businesses across this country of their extreme displeasure that your company has elected not to pass along savings on interchange fees to them, and now one of your board members is embroiled in a potential conflict of interest?
Do you think that maybe you should call your counsel after this meeting and say, “Hey, maybe we should put a screen around this guy to make sure there's no conflict of interest”? Do you at least acknowledge that the optics are problematic?
December 12th, 2024 / 8:35 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Stripe, Inc.
Well, under the Lobbying Act, my understanding is that conflicts are the responsibility of the board member. We trust that Mark Carney has taken all of the right steps.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
I'll give you just one more chance, because I've been around a hot minute, and I know when things tend to blow up. I have a feeling that this is going to become problematic for you.
Do you have any personal reservations about not knowing whether or not one of your board members is in talks to become the finance minister of Canada after the current finance minister of Canada said at a committee meeting this week that she would intervene on your not passing along savings on interchange fees to Canadian small businesses? Do you not assess that as some sort of corporate reputational risk in the slightest?