Quarterly Financial Report for the quarter ended September 30, 2023
Statement outlining results, risks and significant changes in operations, personnel and program 1. Introduction This quarterly report has been prepared by management as required by section 65.1 of the Financial Administration Act and in the form and manner prescribed by the Treasury Board Directive on Accounting Standards. This report should be read in conjunction with the 2023-24 Main Estimates. The mandate of the Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat (CICS) is to support federal, provincial, and territorial governments in the planning and conduct of senior level intergovernmental conferences held across Canada. The primary objective of CICS is to relieve client departments of the numerous technical and administrative tasks associated with the planning and conduct of multilateral conferences, thereby enabling participants to concentrate on substantive intergovernmental policy issues. CICS provides continuous, effective, and impartial administrative services to these meetings. This quarterly report has not been subject to an external audit or review. Basis of Presentation This quarterly report has been prepared by management using an expenditure basis of accounting. The accompanying Statement of Authorities includes the department’s spending authorities granted by Parliament and those used by the department consistent with the 2023-24 Main Estimates. This quarterly report has been prepared using a special purpose financial reporting framework designed to meet financial information needs with respect to the use of spending authorities. The authority of Parliament is required before money can be spent by the Government. Approvals are given in the form of annually approved limits through appropriation acts or through legislation in the form of statutory spending authority for specific purposes. As part of the departmental performance reporting process, CICS prepares its annual departmental financial statements on a full accrual basis in accordance with Treasury Board accounting policies, which are based on the Canadian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles for the public sector. However, the spending authorities voted by Parliament remain on an expenditure basis. 2. Highlights of fiscal quarter and fiscal year to date (YTD) results Operating expenses from July 1 to September 30, 2023, increased slightly (by $175,000) in this second quarter compared with the same period in 2022-23. These increases are mainly due to the staffing of new positions and the high cost of professional and special services to support conference services. To date, CICS has supported 22 in-person conferences and 24 videoconferences, compared with 25 in-person conferences and 27 videoconferences over the same period in 2022-23. 2.1 Statement of Authorities CICS’ authorities for 2023-24 as of the second quarter are approximately $45,000 lower than last year (a decrease of $54,700 in voted authorities and an increase of $9,700 in statutory authorities), due to a lower operating budget carry-forward than in the previous year. 2.2 Statement of Department Budgetary Expenditures by Standard Object Year to date operating expenses to September 30, 2023, are $3 million, approximately $257,000 higher than for the same period in 2022-23. The observed increase is largely attributable to the following factors: Personnel: an increase of $103,000 due to the staffing of new positions. Professional and special services: an increase of $100,000, […]
by Aaron Lampole
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Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy 2023 to 2027
Click here to view the Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat’s Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy for 2023-2027. An accessible version of this document can be provided upon request by emailing info@scics.ca. For more information on accessibility at CICS, please visit https://scics.ca/en/accessibility/.
by Aaron Lampole
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Departmental Results Report 2022-23
View as: The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, P.C., K.C., M.P.Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs ISSN: 2562-7376 Table of Contents From the Institutional Head Results at a glance Results: what we achieved Core responsibility Internal services Spending and human resources Spending Human resources Expenditures by vote Government of Canada spending and activities Financial statements and financial statements highlights Corporate information Organizational profile Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do Operating context Reporting framework Supporting information on the program inventory Supplementary information tables Federal tax expenditures Organizational contact information Appendix: definitions From the Institutional Head I am pleased to table the Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat’s (CICS) 2022‑23 Departmental Results Report (DRR). For 50 years, CICS has been a key player in the Canadian intergovernmental machinery, providing administrative and logistical support required for the planning and conduct of federal-provincial-territorial and provincial-territorial conferences of First Ministers, Ministers and Deputy Ministers across Canada. And 2022‑23 was no exception; CICS having supported 44 videoconferences and 37 in-person conferences, for a total of 81 events. Beyond the numbers, the major evolution in service delivery this year has been the rise of the hybrid conference. CICS had anticipated that this format would become the new post pandemic norm and tirelessly worked at broadening its expertise, focussing on videoconferencing and adding to the current technology options, all while setting new standards for the future of hybrid conferencing. As a result, almost every in-person event now has a videoconferencing component, to greater or lesser extent, thus allowing significant flexibility for conference participants and organizers. Despite the financial constraints felt throughout the year, the Secretariat’s ability to realign and retool itself in the face of such substantial shifts in its operating environment demonstrated the organization’s ability to continually adapt and to rise to the challenge. Ruth OnyanchaSecretary, Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat Results at a glance Key results achieved in 2022‑23 CICS expanded its slate of services to support hybrid conferences. This included enabling remote interpretation, improving internet quality in conference rooms, facilitating in-person dialogue with online participants, virtual break-out rooms, and other forms of parallel meetings for discussions, communiqué preparation, virtual press conferences, and much more. The videoconferencing platform (secure, user-friendly and with an integrated interpretation module) continued to be the platform of choice during the third year of the pandemic, and will continue to be used for linking remote participants to in-person meetings. Actual full‑time equivalents 30 CICS continued to focus on innovation and delivering high-quality, responsive, and cost-effective conference services to federal, provincial, and territorial governments, now in a newly hybrid environment. Enhancing virtual conferencing capabilities by exploring new technologies and remote services, such as remote interpretation, was therefore a key factor in adapting to the rapidly evolving conference environment. As a result of these modernization improvements, CICS was able to mitigate cost increases and maintain the high-quality service its clients have come to expect. The Secretariat continued to provide the required equipment to employees to ensure optimal mobility, and refined […]
by Aaron Lampole
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