Report on Annual Expenditures for Travel, Hospitality and Conferences for the year ending March 31, 2019

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

As required by the Treasury Board Guideline on Travel, Hospitality, Conference and Event Expenditures, this report provides information on travel, hospitality and conferences expenditures for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019, except for information withheld under the Access to Information Act or the Privacy Act.

Travel, hospitality and conferences expenditures incurred by federal departments and agencies relate to activities that support the departmental or agency’s mandate and the government's priorities.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s travel, hospitality and conference expenditures support the delivery of the following core programs and 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) core responsabilities are:
  1. Protection of Privacy Rights: to ensure the protection of privacy rights of Canadians; enforce privacy obligations by federal government institutions and private-sector organizations; provide advice to Parliament on potential privacy implications of proposed legislation and government programs; promote awareness and understanding of rights and obligations under federal privacy legislation.
  2. Internal Services: 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.

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.

For more information on OPC’s programs please consult the Office’s 2019-20 Departmental Plan and the Office’s 2018-19 Departmental Results Report.

Travel, Hospitality and Conferences Expenditures

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Year ended March 31, 2019

Expenditure Category	Expenditures for the year ending March 31, 2019 ($ thousands)	Expenditures for the year ending March 31, 2018 ($ thousands)	Variance ($ thousands)
Operational activities	156.4	247.6	(91.2)
Key stakeholders	131.4	57.7	73.7
Internal governance	12.3	14.5	(2.2)
Training	101.9	60.3	41.6
Other	25.7	14.3	11.4
A. Total Travel	427.7	394.4	33.3
B. Hospitality	14.8	24.2	(9.4)
C. Conference Fees	25.7	0.0	25.7
TOTAL	468.2	418.6	49.6

Variance Analysis

The Office continues to work towards actively managing its expenditures for travel, hospitality and conference.

• Travel: The Office’s travel expenditures increased in 2018-19 when compared to the previous fiscal year due to higher costs of training activities, speaking engagements, consultation with stakeholders and participation in a number of international privacy protection organizations to address global privacy issues. More information can be found on the page: What we do.
• Hospitality: In 2017-18, the Office co-hosted the Asian Pacific Privacy Authorities Annual Forum. Themes during the Forum included partnering for research, discussing global privacy trends, exchanging domestic experiences and seeking opportunities for joint regulatory guidance and enforcing activities across the Asia Pacific Region. As a result, of not co-hosting the event in 2018-19, the Office’s hospitality expenditures decreased when compared to 2017-18.
• Conference Fees: The 2018-2019 expenditures are due to a realignment of expenses from exhibition services to conference fees.