Annual Report on Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada 2024 - 2025

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 Privacy Commissioner of Canada for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025.

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 OPC is overseeing compliance with both the Privacy Act, which covers the personal information-handling practices of federal government institutions, and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Canada’s federal private sector privacy law, along with some aspects of Canada’s anti-spam law (CASL).

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures for Year ending March 31, 2025

Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures
Expenditure category	Expenditures for year ended March 31, 2025 ($ thousands)	Expenditures for year ended March 31, 2024 ($ thousands)	Variance ($ thousands)
Travel
Operational activities	$104.60	$100.60	$4.00
Key stakeholders	$175.50	$212.80	-$37.30
Internal governance	$5.20	$11.70	-$6.50
Training	$13.80	$49.40	-$35.60
Other	$62.60	$7.60	$55.00
A. Total travel	$361.70	$382.10	-$20.40
B. Hospitality	$21.70	$69.30	-$47.60
C. Conference fees	$25.40	$40.10	-$14.70
Total [A+B+C]	$408.80	$491.50	-$82.70
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:

In 2024-25, travel expenses decreased by 5%. These expenditures supported OPC's speaking engagements, consultation with stakeholders, training activities, developing and sustaining partnerships with data-protection authorities around the world, as well as international associations and regulators.

Hospitality:

In 2024-2025, the OPC's hospitality expenses decreased by 69%. This reduction is primarily because the OPC did not host the International Working Group on Data Protection in Technology (Berlin Group) meeting, as it did in the previous fiscal year.

Conference fees:

In 2024-25, conference fees expenses decreased 37% decrease. These expenditures supported events directly related to the OPC's mandate.