Report on Annual Expenditures for Travel, Hospitality and Conferences

Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs (FJA) Canada

As required by the Treasury Board Directive for the Management of Expenditures on Travel, Hospitality and Conferences, this report provides information on the total annual expenditures for each of travel, hospitality and conferences for FJA for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.  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 for the most part directly related to supporting departmental mandate(s) and the government's priorities.

In particular, for the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs (FJA) Canada, this includes delivering core programs in support of federal judicial activities and services to Canadians. Under the Program Alignment Architecture, the organization is broken down into three program activities: Payments pursuant to the Judges Act, Canadian Judicial Council, and FJA. These activities strive to meet the priorities of: developing organizational capacity, building a strong, integrated team, improving service delivery, enhancing communications, and managing information.

Further details about FJA's, mandate, and program activities can be found below and in FJA's Departmental Performance Report (DPR), Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP), and other relevant documents located on the Treasury Board website at www.tbs-sct.gc.ca.

Total annual expenditures for Travel, Hospitality and Conferences of Federal Judicial Affairs are summarized below:


Report on Annual Expenditures for Travel, Hospitality and Conferences
Expenditure Category
(in thousands of dollars)		 Expenditures for the year ending March 31, 2013
(a)		 Expenditures for the year ending March 31, 2012
(b)		 Variance
(a-b)
Travel - Public Servants $155 $211 $(56)
Travel - Non-Public Servants $347 $266 $81
International Travel by Minister and Minister's Staff - - -
Total Travel $502 $477 $25
Hospitality $56 $36 $20
Conference Fees $9 $163 $(154)
TOTAL $567 $676 $(109)

Significant variances compared to the previous fiscal year
This section is used to provide a brief explanation of significant variances from the previous year's annual expenditures for each category.

TRAVEL:

  1. Public Servants: Compared to fiscal year 2011-2012, departmental travel expenditures by public servants decreased mainly due to:
    • Efforts to constrain operational travel costs.
  2. Non-Public Servants: Compared to fiscal year 2011-2012, departmental travel expenditures by non-public servants increased mainly due to:
    • An increase in travel costs for language teachers required for the Judges' Language Training sessions and statutory costs.
  3. Minister and Minister's Staff:  n/a

HOSPITALITY:

Compared to fiscal year 2011-2012, departmental hospitality expenditures increased mainly due to:

  • Corrections in financial coding procedures for the Judges' Language Training sessions; and
  • An increase in the number of meetings and working groups required to support the work of the Canadian Judicial Council.

CONFERENCE FEES:

Compared to fiscal year 2011-2012, departmental hospitality expenditures decreased mainly due to:

  • A general decrease in conference participation; and
  • Corrections in financial coding procedures for conference attendance.