pre_text: (1) Include cost of equipment sold, content and programming costs, payments to other carriers, franchise fees and network costs. (2) Include advertising and marketing expenses, selling costs, billing expenses, bad debts and collection expenses. (3) Include office building expenses, professional service fees, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (“CRTC”) fees, losses and gains on disposals and write-offs of property, plant and equipment and other administrative expenses. 9. OPERATING EXPENSES
table: Years ended August 31, 2019 2018
table: (In thousands of Canadian dollars) $ $
table: (restated, Note 3)
table: Salaries, employee benefits and outsourced services 345,041 317,118
table: Service delivery costs(1) 661,214 615,267
table: Customer related costs(2) 83,401 68,744
table: Other external purchases(3) 114,324 120,496
table: 1,203,980 1,121,625
question: Analyse this data from a financial earnings document. What is the increase/ (decrease) in Salaries, employee benefits and outsourced services from 2018 to 2019?