While the federal government has long had ties with Shopify, they appear to have established a closer relationship since sweeping economic shutdowns began draining small businesses’ revenues in March
behind a contact-tracing app that was developed by a group of Shopify volunteers. And behind the scenes, the company’s chief executive officer, Tobi Lutke, has been regularly advising members of the government on digital affairs, including contact-tracing technology.
“This has been in the works since the pandemic hit,” said general manager Sylvia Ng, one of Shopify’s key leaders overseeing the Go Digital Canada program, which she hopes other companies will support as well. Shopify and the federal government, she said, “have a shared mutual interest and commitment to Shopify supporting the digitization of small businesses.”
The federal lobbyist registry shows that Shopify has lobbied the federal government 27 times since 2017, with 22 of the instances in the past six months. Prior to this, Mr. Rabbior said, Shopify’s communications with governments centred on how to help other tech companies scale. Few have reached Shopify’s size and influence in Canada since BlackBerry shifted away from handsets last decade, but now federal ministers regularly discuss promoting policies that would emulate Shopify’s success.
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