Annual Report on Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures

Standards Council of Canada 2023 - 2024

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 Standards Council of Canada for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024.

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:

The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) leads and facilitates the development and use of national and international standards and accreditation services in order to enhance Canada's competitiveness and well-being. SCC carries out a variety of functions intended to ensure the effective and coordinated operation of standardization in Canada. It also represents Canada's interests on standards-related matters in foreign and international development meetings and engagement forums.

Standards Council of Canada Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures for Year ending March 31, 2024

Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures
Expenditure category	Expenditures for year ended March 31, 2024 ($ thousands)	Expenditures for year ended March 31, 2023 ($ thousands)	Variance ($ thousands)
Travel
Operational activities	$1,398.00	$661.00	$737.00
Key stakeholders	$637.00	$456.00	$181.00
Internal governance	$95.00	$114.00	-$19.00
Training	$10.00	$7.00	$3.00
Other	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
A. Total travel	$2,140.00	$1,238.00	$902.00
B. Hospitality	$102.00	$134.00	-$32.00
C. Conference fees	$363.00	$251.00	$112.00
Total [A+B+C]	$2,605.00	$1,623.00	$982.00
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:

Operations related travel expenses at SCC are driven by its accreditation services assessment activities. While operations related travel costs are usually the majority of travel costs at SCC, most of these are recoverable via billings to customers. The year over year change in operations related travel was due to an increase in the number of year-over-year onsite customer assessments. Accreditation Services continues to strive for travel savings where possible in order be efficient and save costs for its customers.

Key Stakeholder travel costs are non-recoverable costs incurred by SCC's operating branches to attend standards setting, policy development and stakeholder engagement meetings The year-over-year increase was the result of normal business and the return of in-person meetings. There were no unusual or significant trips in Fiscal Year 2023-2024. The $181K increase was from $12K more spent on Research meetings with the International Standrds Organization (ISO) and a trip to Germany, $25K for incremental attendance at capacity building events like the Pacific Area tandrds Congress (PASC), Pan-American Standards Commission (COPANT) and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), $49K for Trade and Regulatory meeting attendance in Singapore, Peru and Indonesia as well as $86K of additional travel for Innovative services meetings related to the Artificial Intelligence meetings in Montreal, New York and Amsterdam.

Internal Governance travel costs are non-recoverable travel costs incurred by SCC's internal services branches to represent SCC at various general and administrative meetings. A large proportion of this travel is related to representing SCC at the annual general meetings of its peer standardization organizations. The year-over-year decrease of $19K was related to cost containment efforts such as switching governance meetings to a virtual platform instead of in-person meetings.

Training travel costs are related to transportation, accommodation and living expenses incurred by SCC stakeholders while on training. Fiscal year 2023-2024 spending and it correlating year-over-year increase were not material.

Other travel costs are costs related to SCC's corporate secretariat and communications teams to conduct quarterly meetings as well as special events like World Standards Day and World Accreditation Day.

Hospitality:

Hospitality expenses arise from meetings with external stakeholders and a limited small number of governance and all-staff events. The in-year spend is a result of meetings that took place during the course of normal business and the year-over-year decrease was a result of a MHSU plenary meeting in 2023 that did not repeat in 2024 as well as general cost containment efforts.

Conference fees:

Conferences and meetings cost increases during Fiscal Year 2023-2024 were the result of normal business. Event services costs like the rental of audio-visual equipment increased by $24K for meetings related to Artificial Intelligence (AI), Mental Health and Substance Use (MHSU) and the Globe-X-Change Services meetings. Conference attendance increased by $32K for events like the IAF-ILAC Joint Annual Mtg (9 people), AI, Infrastructure and MHSU. Hosting costs increased by $38K for SCC participation in the World Summit on AI. Conferences and awards also increased by $18K due to inflationary costs related to all staff Town Halls and employee recognition (service awards).