Annual Report on Travel, Hospitality and Conference Expenditures

Standards Council 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 Standards Council 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 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, 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	$1,602.00	$1,398.00	$204.00
Key stakeholders	$774.00	$637.00	$137.00
Internal governance	$262.00	$95.00	$167.00
Training	$21.00	$10.00	$11.00
Other	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
A. Total travel	$2,659.00	$2,140.00	$519.00
B. Hospitality	$115.00	$102.00	$13.00
C. Conference fees	$317.00	$363.00	-$46.00
Total [A+B+C]	$3,091.00	$2,605.00	$486.00
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. Operations related travel costs are usually the majority of travel costs at SCC and 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.|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 additional activity related to startegic programs like AI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure.|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 significant year-over year increase is due to a provision taken against travel costs related to a correction of overclaimed sales tax credits from prior years.|Training travel costs are related to transportation, accommodation and living expenses incurred by SCC stakeholders while on training. Fiscal year spending and the correlating year-over-year change were not material.

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. Fiscal year spending and the correlating year-over-year change were not material.

Conference fees:

Conferences and meetings costs were the result of normal business. The decrease in spending stems from fewer participants at international events.