Thank you, Mr. Chair.
There were actually a couple of takeaways from Friday's meeting. There was one we said we hoped to come back in writing with beforehand, and there was a question from one of the members on the variation as it relates to the passport office spend.
I'm really sorry for not having been able to send that information. We were working with the passport folks and got that information and the analysis completed around noon today. Again, I just want to say I'm sorry about that. We're happy to follow with more details.
One of the more precise questions was around the drop in the salary expenses from 2021 to 2022. The point was that there was a lot more business from a passport perspective done in 2022, so why exactly were there lower salary charges?
Actually, the larger part of the explanation for the higher salary expenses in 2021 is that there was a settlement of some of the collective agreements for PSAC. The retroactive pay for those settlements happened in the year 2020-21. Also linked to those negotiations were some Phoenix damages that were negotiated. Again, those one-time payments were done within 2021.
There was also, in the previous year, a moratorium on the automatic cashing out of annual leave. If they get over a certain threshold, employees get automatically cashed out that excess leave that they have. That was put on hold for a little while, but that moratorium was lifted during that year. Therefore, we've seen these automatic cash-outs get started again.
That's basically the explanation for the close to $7-million drop as it relates to salary expenses.
For the increase in revenues, there was obviously a very big increase, and that's basically as a result of the business going back up. There were a million more passports issued in the last fiscal year, 2021-22, than the previous year.
Again, I'm sorry about not having the capacity to come back on this.
I think there was also a question on special services and an increase in professional services from $212 million to $265 million. That's basically because of the increased volume in business, the difference of an additional one million passports between one year to the other. ESDC plays a very important role in the issuance of passports, and they charge for part of their services at Passport Canada. Again, that's a reflection of the additional business, basically, and the additional charge from ESDC to the passport office.
Hopefully this answers part of your questions.
Thank you.