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 conference fees for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016. 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 conference fees incurred by federal departments and agencies are related to activities that support departmental or agency mandate and the government’s priorities.
The IRB is an independent administrative tribunal that was created on January 1, 1989, by an amendment to the
Immigration Act. In 2002, the
Immigration Act was replaced by the
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), which was amended by the
Balanced Refugee Reform Act (BRRA) in 2010 and by the
Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act (PCISA) in 2012.
The IRB has a single strategic outcome which is to resolve immigration and refugee cases before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada efficiently, fairly and in accordance with the law.
The IRB has five programs: Refugee Protection, Refugee Appeals, Immigration Appeals, Admissibility Hearings and Detention Reviews and Internal Services. The Internal Services program supports the four other programs.
The IRB carries out its work in three regional offices: Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. All three divisions hold hearings in these regions, supported by adjudicative and corporate support. Internal and support services are managed at IRB Headquarters, located in Ottawa.
For more information on the IRB’s mandate and activities, please refer to the
Departmental Performance Report and
Report on Plans and Priorities.
Total annual expenditures for Travel, Hospitality and Conferences of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada are summarized below:
Total Annual Expenditures for Travel, Hospitality and Conferences (in thousands of dollars)
| Expenditure Category | Expenditures for the Year Ending March 31, 2016 | Expenditures for the Previous Year Ending March 31, 2015 | Change |
|---|
| Travel – Public Servants | 1,130 | 980 | 150 |
| Travel – Non-Public Servants | 83 | 67 | 16 |
|
Total Travel | 1,213 | 1,047 | 166 |
|
Hospitality | 33 | 26 | 7 |
|
Conference Fees | 4 | 9 |
less (5) |
|
Total | 1,250 | 1,082 | 168 |
| International Travel by Minister and Minister’s Staff (also included in Non‑Public Servant travel)Footnote 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Footnotes
- Footnote 1
-
The IRB does not incur expenses related to international travel by the Minister and Ministers staff.
Return to footnote 1 referrer
Significant variances compared to the previous fiscal year
Travel
The IRB travel expenditures increased by $166K or 16% compared to fiscal year 2014‑15.
Compared to fiscal year 2014‑15, the IRB travel expenditures by public servants increased by $150K or 15%. This was mainly due to staff on long term travel status to meet resource requirements, increased travel for the immigration appeal division activity in the western region, and as case volumes increased travel for support services for security, registry and IMIT increased.
Compared to fiscal year 2014‑15, the Board travel expenditures by non-public servants increased by $16K or 24% largely for consultants to provide employee training on enhancements to the case management system across all regions.
Hospitality and Conference Fees
The IRB hospitality and conference fees remain relatively consistent year over year.
Hospitality was utilized in support of consultative stakeholder engagement committees, integrated strategic planning sessions and seminars required to support IRBs core mandate.
IRB conference participation remain consistent year over year. The decrease in conference fees expenditures is due to a reclassification to professional development expenditures in fiscal year 2015‑16.