Report on Annual Expenditures for Travel, Hospitality and Conferences - 2018

[Previous report: 2017]

As required by the Treasury Board Directive 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 CRTC for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018. 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 mandates and the government’s priorities.

In particular, for the CRTC, this includes expenditures on travel, hospitality and conferences incurred while regulating and supervising the Canadian communications system in the public interest, according to the policy objectives established in the Broadcasting Act of 1991, the Telecommunications Act of 1993, the Canada Elections Act and An Act to promote the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy by regulating certain activities that discourage reliance on electronic means of carrying out commercial activities, and to amend the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act, the Competition Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Telecommunications Act (i.e. Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation).

These expenditures include non-discretionary travel costs related to the statutory requirements such as the conduct of public hearings, Commission meetings and investigations and enforcement activities.

Further details about the CRTC’s authority, mandate and program activities can be found in the department’s Departmental Results Report (DRR), Departmental Plans (DP), and other sources of relevant information located on the Treasury Board website at www.tbs-sct.gc.ca.

Significant variances compared to the previous fiscal year

Overall expenditures on travel, hospitality and conferences have decreased by $226,000 or 24% compared to the previous year’s expenditures. The overall reduction is largely the result of active and on-going management of the CRTC’s travel, hospitality and conference expenditures.

TRAVEL: Departmental travel expenditures decreased by $211,000 or 28% in 2017-18 compared to 2016-17 due to considerable on-going efforts to constrain spending, such as establishing monitoring processes to reduce the number of travelers per trip and adopting more streamlined and economical processes and practices. Examples of economical practices included use of economy and discounted airfares and increased use of teleconferencing and videoconferencing to minimize the need to travel.

Expenditures incurred were focused on achieving the department’s core mandate, ensuring delivery on its key priorities and statutory responsibilities including stakeholder consultations and public hearings.

The CRTC will continue to actively monitor travel-related expenditures in 2018-19.

CONFERENCE FEES: Compared with fiscal year 2016-17, departmental conference fee expenditures decreased slightly.

HOSPITALITY: Compared with fiscal year 2016-17, departmental hospitality expenditures decreased by $12,000 or 39% because of efforts to ensure that decisions to offer hospitality were carefully considered and necessary to avoid or minimize hospitality costs.

The CRTC will continue to actively monitor hospitality and conference fee-related expenditures in 2018-19.

Date modified:

2018-11-20