Annual Report on Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures

Standards Council of Canada 2022 - 2023

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, 2023.

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, 2023

Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures
Expenditure category	Expenditures for year ended March 31, 2023 ($ thousands)
Travel
Operational activities	$661.00
Key stakeholders	$456.00
Internal governance	$114.00
Training	$7.00
Other	$0.00
A. Total travel	$1,238.00
B. Hospitality	$134.00
C. Conference fees	$251.00
Total [A+B+C]	$1,623.00
International travel by minister and minister's staff (included in travel)	$0.00

Explanation of significant variances compared with previous fiscal year

Total travel:

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 the return of travel, post-COVID-19 pandemic. Accreditation Services continues to conduct remote assessments where possible in order be efficient and save customer costs.

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 due to the return of in-person meetings. There were no unusual or significant trips in Fiscal Year 2022-2023. SCC leveraged modernized tools to enable remote collaboration where possible in order meet the needs of stakeholders and standards development.

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 increase was related to normal business activity and a return to in-person meetings, albeit at a new reduced level post COVID-19 pandemic.

Training travel costs are related to transportation, accommodation and living expenses incurred by SCC stakeholders while on training. Fiscal year 2022-2023 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 increase was a result of the return to in-person meetings. Operations spending included $40k from Accreditation Services spent $40K for customer engagement and workshops such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), $37k on workshops related to the Mental Health and Substance Use (MHSU) program related to stakeholder experience and input, and $26K on in-person town halls and governance meetings as part of our Communications programs.

Conference fees:

Conferences and meetings cost increases during Fiscal Year 2022-2023 were the result of normal business and the return to in-person meetings. Non-recoverable event services increased by $138K: SCC hosted events in support of program initiatives like MHSU and OECD increased by $107K while event costs for internal governance meetings increased by $31K. SCC also spent an additional $51K on hosted sessions in collaboration with Globe-X-Change Services and the De-Centralized Energy Commission. Non-recoverable conference attendance increased by $23K with significant on any one event (the largest event cost $8K for 5 SCC participants).