Report on Annual Expenditures for Travel, Hospitality and Conferences for the year ending March 31, 2017

As required by the Treasury Board Guideline on Travel, Hospitality, Conference and Event Expenditures, this report provides information on the total annual expenditures for each of travel, hospitality and conferences for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. It also provides the variance explanations from the previous fiscal year in each of these areas.

This information is updated annually and does not contain information withheld under the Access to Information Act or the Privacy Act.

Expenditures on travel, hospitality and conferences incurred by federal departments and agencies are related to supporting departmental mandate(s) and the government's priorities.

In particular, for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, this includes the delivery of the following core programs and/or services to Canadians:

• The mandate of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (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).
• The mission of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) is to protect and promote the privacy rights of individuals.
• The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) major programs are:
  1. Compliance activities: the Office is responsible for investigation privacy-related complaints and responding to inquiries from individuals and organizations.
  2. Research and Policy development: the Office serves as a centre of expertise on emerging privacy issues in Canada and abroad by researching trends and technological developments, monitoring legislative and regulatory initiatives, providing legal, policy and technical analyses on key issues, and developing policy positions that advance the protection of privacy rights in both the public and private sectors.
  3. Public Outreach: the Office delivers public education and communications activities, including speaking engagements and special events, exhibiting, media relations, and the production and dissemination of promotional and educational material.
  4. Internal Services are groups of related activities and resources that the federal government considers to be services in support of programs and/or required to meet corporate obligations of an organization.

For more information on OPC’s programs please consult the Office’s 2017-18 Departmental Plan and the Office’s 2016-17 Departmental Results Report.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada incurs travel, hospitality and conference expenditures for activities directly related to its mandate. Since most privacy trends are global in nature, the OPC invests considerable efforts in developing and sustaining partnerships with data-protection authorities around the world, as well as international associations and regulators. OPC officials deliver numerous speeches to transfer knowledge about privacy to audiences in Canada and abroad. The OPC carries out investigations and audit under both legislations the Privacy Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. Investigation and Audit work tends to involve travel because it often necessitates site visits in order to review materials and discuss issues with respondents. OPC also incurs travel costs related to public events and other professional development activities that are critical for staff to remain current with rapid evolutions within the privacy field.

Total annual expenditures for Travel, Hospitality and Conferences for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner are summarized below:

Expenditure Category	Expenditures for the year ending, March 31, 2017 (a)	Expenditures for the year ending, March 31, 2016 (b)	Variance (a-b)
	(in thousands of dollars)
Travel – Public Servants	440.4	375.2	65.2
Travel – Non-Public Servants	2.9	2.6	0.3
Total Travel	443.3	377.8	65.5
Hospitality	25.2	21.8	3.4
Conference Fees	0	0	0
TOTAL	468.5	399.6	68.9

Overall, there is an increase of expenditures in fiscal year 2016-17, compared to the previous fiscal year. The Office continues to work towards actively managing its expenditures for travel, hospitality and conference fees.

TRAVEL:

1. Public Servants: Costs for public servants within the OPC to attend training sessions, participate in conferences (speaking engagements domestic and international such as International Conference of Data Protection) and exhibiting outside of the National Capital Region were greater when compared to fiscal year 2015-16, which explains the increase in travel expenditures reported in 2016-17.
2. Non-Public Servants: Expenditures in 2016-17 for non-public servants remained relatively the same as the previous fiscal year.

HOSPITALITY: Compared to fiscal year 2015-16, OPC’s hospitality expenditures did not significantly change.

Approval by