CPPO Hill Day 2025 Recap

On November 18, representatives from CPPO member organizations were in Ottawa for the CPPO’s fourth annual Hill Day.

This year’s Hill Day successfully showcased the breadth and innovation of Canada’s open loop prepaid industry while also making significant progress on the policy issues that matter to prepaid. CPPO representatives held 14 meetings with government officials, political staff, and parliamentarians.

We met with key policy-makers and regulators, including in Finance Canada, Bank of Canada, Intergovernmental Affairs, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, and Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada.

We also held meetings with Members of Parliament and Senators with portfolios that concern the financial sector, industry, and government operations. 

We built new relationships with parliamentarians and continued to advance progress with government policy-makers on the important policy and regulatory issues facing the prepaid industry in Canada.

In addition to education on open loop prepaid innovation in Canada, our advocacy efforts focused on two key issues:

• Prepaid Products for Government Disbursements: As the Government of Canada undertakes its Comprehensive Expenditure Review, we positioned prepaid as an effective tool to replace cheques which would reduce costs and increase efficiency for government disbursements. Both government and parliamentarians were open to the idea of replacing cheques with prepaid products, and we will be following up to continue to advance these discussions. 

  
  

• Regulatory Harmonization: With the Government of Canada working to break down internal trade barriers in support of “One Canadian Economy”, we advanced discussions on establishing a harmonized approach to provincial regulations governing prepaid products. Policy-makers were receptive to this approach and we are going to remain in contact with key departments to advance this matter. The CPPO will be providing more information on the different provincial regulatory frameworks. 

Thank you to all that participated in the CPPO’s 2025 Hill Day! If you have any questions or would like to learn more, please let us know. 

CPPO members Noah Niznick, Olivia Tang, Sara Mackay Smith, Ed Woodson, and Dina Vardouniotis met with MP Michael Guglielmin to discuss the importance of regulatory harmonization in supporting consumer protection and the role that prepaid can play in disbursing government funds to Canadians. 

CPPO members Stacey Hoisak, Andrea Paric, Tracy Molino, and Daljit Singh met with Senator Pierre J. Dalphond to discuss the role of regulatory harmonization in supporting payments innovation and prepaid technology. 

 CPPO members Stacey Hoisak, Andrea Paric, Tracy Molino, and Daljit Singh met with Senator Iris Petten to talk about how prepaid technology can enable financial empowerment for Canadians, including how prepaid cards offer a secure and efficient alternative to cheques for government disbursements.

CPPO members Tracy Molino, Stacey Hoisak, Andrea Paric, and Daljit Singh met with MP Tom Osborne, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board. The group discussed the role of Canada’s prepaid ecosystem, and how prepaid products can be used as a tool for the government to disburse funds to Canadians.