I'd like to point out that the biggest difference between our point of view for the budget balance in 2018-19—so the current fiscal year—and the figures published in budget 2018 is that line in operating and capital expenses. This report marks the first time that our office has actually published its own independent projection for the operating and capital expense components of direct program spending.
You'll see that, earlier in the report, on page 21 of the English version, we provide a breakdown of exactly how we construct our estimate of the operating and capital components of DPE. You'll see that in 2018-19, there's considerable growth in expenses attributed to future and other benefits. These benefits include future benefits for veterans, payments for pensions, etc. They're highly sensitive to interest rates. Interest rates over the past eight or 10 years have been declining, and the relationship between future benefits and the interest rates is inverse. As interest rates fall, the expenses attributed to future and other benefits start to rise. That peaks in 2018-19, so this is—certainly as part of our direct program expense forecast—a source of cost growth.
I can't comment on whether that's consistent with estimates in budget 2018 because, unfortunately, the government does not provide a decomposition, as we do here in table 9, of its direct program expense forecast. It summarizes transfer payments and then operating and capital expenses just in two summary lines. Hopefully with table 9 we're able to depict exactly how we're putting our direct program expense forecasts together. Unfortunately, I can't compare that to the estimates of the government because that information is not public.