Annual Report on Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 2018 - 2019
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 Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019.
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 IRB renders quality decisions and resolves cases in a timely manner regarding immigration and refugee protection cases. This includes determining refugee protection claims and appeals and applications to vacate or cease refugee protection. It also includes making decisions on admissibility hearings and detention reviews, and on appeals on certain immigration cases. The IRB delivers these services through the following four divisions:
Refugee Protection Division
Refugee Appeal Division
Immigration Division
Immigration Appeal Division
The IRB carries out its work in three regional offices: Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, one satellite office in Calgary, points of service in Winnipeg and Edmonton and itinerant locations in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba as required. All these sites hold hearings, supported by adjudicative and corporate support.
More information on the IRB’s mandate and activities can be found in the 2018-2019 Departmental Result Report and 2019-2020 Departmental Plan.
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures for Year ending March 31, 2019
Expenditure category |
Expenditures for year ended March 31, 2019 ($ thousands) |
|---|---|
| Travel | |
Operational activities |
$797.00 |
Key stakeholders |
$133.00 |
Internal governance |
$717.00 |
Training |
$773.00 |
Other |
$93.00 |
| A. Total travel | $2,513.00 |
| B. Hospitality | $96.00 |
| C. Conference fees | $79.00 |
| Total [A+B+C] | $2,688.00 |
| International travel by minister and minister's staff (included in travel) | $0.00 |
Explanation of significant variances compared with previous fiscal year
Total travel:
Budget 2018 provided the IRB with temporary funding to increase decision-making capacity for irregular migration asylum claims. To this end, increased spending on travel, hospitality and conferences of $1.1 million (73%) is primarily due to the provision of training to decision makers and support activities to process a higher number of claims. The increase in travel expenditures is due mainly to divisional national training sessions, training for new decision makers and operational activities such as setting up offices for decision makers.
Hospitality:
The increase in hospitality expenditures is also due to divisional training sessions, operational planning sessions to ramp up the IRB’s decision-making capacity, and consultative sessions.
Conference fees:
The increase in personnel to augment decision-making capacity also impacted participation in conferences relevant to the IRB’s mandate and programs.Minister and minister’s exempt staff - International travel:
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