Annual Report on Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures
Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat 2020 - 2021
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 Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021.
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 mandate of the Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat is to support federal, provincial and territorial governments in the planning and conduct of senior level intergovernmental conferences held across Canada. The primary objective of CICS is to relieve client departments of the numerous technical and administrative tasks associated with the planning and conduct of multilateral conferences, thereby enabling participants to concentrate on substantive intergovernmental policy issues. CICS provides continuous, effective, and impartial administrative services to these meetings.
•For additional information on CICS services, please refer to the various CICS reports and publications on the following web link: http://www.scics.ca/en/
Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures for Year ending March 31, 2021
Expenditure category |
Expenditures for year ended March 31, 2021 ($ thousands) |
Expenditures for year ended March 31, 2020 ($ thousands) |
Variance ($ thousands) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel | |||
Operational activities |
$0.24 |
$366.30 |
-$366.05 |
Key stakeholders |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
Internal governance |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
Training |
$0.00 |
$2.57 |
-$2.57 |
Other |
$0.00 |
$0.02 |
-$0.02 |
| A. Total travel | $0.24 |
$368.89 |
-$368.64 |
| B. Hospitality | $0.00 |
$0.13 |
-$0.13 |
| C. Conference fees | $0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
| Total [A+B+C] | $0.24 |
$369.02 |
-$368.78 |
| 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:
CICS travel expenditures are related to the provision of in person conferencing support services to its clients. During the COVID-19 pandemic, no in person conferences were supported by CICS, resulting in near zero dollars spent on travel in fiscal 2020-21.
The nature of the travel costs are the same for both public and non-public servants. Non-public servants are made up of contractors and provincial employees who are part of a provincial secondment program, working in the Conference Services Division. During 2020-21, CICS saw a decrease of $369 thousand of expenditures relating to travel from the previous fiscal year and no hospitality or conference expenditures. This variance is attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, requiring a complete shift of all of CICS' services to a virtual format. The pandemic also limited employees from travelling for training and other reasons. Additionally, it gave little opportunty to expend on hospitality events.