As Ms. Dawson indicated earlier, in past years, we had budget surpluses at the end of the year. They were in the amount of approximately $1.5 million the first year I worked at the Office of the Commissioner. A lot of money was returned to Parliament. At the end of the previous year, we returned close to half a million dollars. However, we do always set aside a contingency fund for unexpected expenditures.
In addition, as Ms. Dawson mentioned earlier, we carry out an internal exercise. We studied our internal processes and tried to identify possible improvements or initiatives that would allow us to save money. This year already, we are seeing results, as Ms. Dawson mentioned earlier. We are using email increasingly frequently to communicate with our clients rather than regular mail service. The difference this makes is incredible.
We decided to reduce our expenditures by eliminating individual printers. In fact, we had observed that we were spending a lot of money on paper.
We have a small budget, which allows us to identify potential savings.