Annual Report on Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures
Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages 2019 - 2020
As required by the Treasury Board Directive on Travel, Hospitality, Conference and Event Expenditures, this report provides information on travel, hospitality and conference expenditures for Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020.
Travel, hospitality and conference expenditures incurred by a federal department or agency relate to activities that support the department or agency’s mandate and the government’s priorities.
Mandate:
OCOL's travel, hospitality and conference expenditures support the delivery of the following core programs and services to Canadians : To fulfill its mandate, OCOL overses the full implementation of the Official Languages Act, protects the language rights of Canadians and promotes linguistic duality and bilingualism in Canada. To achieve its mandate, OCOL is required to travel across Canad, hold hospitality events and participate in conferences in order to promote linguistic duality in official language communities and investigate complaints filed by citizen who believe their language rights have not been respected.
Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures for Year ending March 31, 2020
Expenditure category |
Expenditures for year ended March 31, 2020 ($ thousands) |
Expenditures for year ended March 31, 2019 ($ thousands) |
Variance ($ thousands) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel | |||
Operational activities |
$174.00 |
$202.00 |
-$28.00 |
Key stakeholders |
$29.00 |
$42.00 |
-$13.00 |
Internal governance |
$21.00 |
$19.00 |
$2.00 |
Training |
$13.00 |
$29.00 |
-$16.00 |
Other |
$31.00 |
$7.00 |
$24.00 |
| A. Total travel | $268.00 |
$299.00 |
-$31.00 |
| B. Hospitality | $26.00 |
$19.00 |
$7.00 |
| C. Conference fees | $21.00 |
$10.00 |
$11.00 |
| Total [A+B+C] | $315.00 |
$328.00 |
-$13.00 |
| International travel by minister and minister's staff (included in travel) | $0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
Explanation of significant variances compared with previous fiscal year
Total travel:
Compared to the 2018-2019 fiscal year, OCOL’s travel expenditures decreased primarily due to travel related to operational activities, stakeholder engagement and employee training. These decreases were mainly offset by an increase in other travel. Travel expenditures related to operational activities decreased mainly due to consultation meetings for the modernization of the Official Languages Act and travel related to relocations in 2018-2019. Travel expenditures related to stakeholder engagement decreased as meetings planned with various official languages stakeholders were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel expenditures related to employee training also decreased mainly because of the Lean approach training in 2018-2019. Expenditures related to other travel increased mainly due to the Officially 50! conference that marked 50 years of linguistic duality and education in Canada.
Hospitality:
Compared to the 2018-2019 fiscal year, OCOL's hospitality expenditures increased mainly as a result of the Conference to celebrate the 50 years of the Official Languages Act and create paths for the development of Canadian linguistic duality.
Conference fees:
Compared to the 2018-2019 fiscal year, OCOL's conference expenditures increased mainly due to the Conference to celebrate the 50 years of the Official Languages Act and create paths for the development of Canadian linguistic duality, the Apex 2019 Leadership Symposium and the « Le bonheur est à l'ouvrage » conference.Minister and minister’s exempt staff - International travel:
N/A