Just to recap the numbers, until fiscal year 2009-10 our allowable carry-forward was 1%--or $200 million, actually; the absolute dollar value ceiling was $200 million.
Partly as a result of the Auditor General's observations on DND and our own representations, in 2009-10 that carry-forward was increased to 2.5% on our operating and capital budgets. At the time it was increased, other departments had a 5% carry-forward ceiling on their operating budgets and a one-off provision for capital budgets to a maximum of 5%. What's happened in the interim is that the capital carry-forward provision for other departments has been increased in fact to 20%. DND continues to be at 2.5%.
As to the “why” part of your question, DND has a budget that is, quite obviously, as you know, larger than any other department's. It also has, as is evidenced in part by this discussion and by some of the numbers that Mr. McCallum has pointed out, a high degree of unpredictability.
With respect to the Department of Finance, one of whose concerns is fiscal forecasting, there's a high degree of fiscal risk attached to the DND budget. If we were allowed the higher carry-forward ceiling that other departments have, it would make fiscal forecasting and predictability a more difficult task. So that is one very serious consideration.