Thank you very much. Thanks for the question, and thanks for the comments, which we will certainly pass on to the staff. They do work very hard on this enormously useful initiative.
Let me just say there are two things, two general areas, where it's been enormously useful. One is in doing the types of projects that I'm about to describe, and the other is in developing partnerships with groups that are on the ground making a difference. There are hundreds of thousands of Canadians; there are hundreds of groups that care passionately about fisheries protection. This initiative, this program, enables us to partner with them, so it's been very useful.
There are all kinds of projects, and we have a set of criteria and program eligibility, but it really is driven by working with the local groups that know best what is required in their area to improve fisheries habitat. It's everything from riparian restoration and bank stabilization, to removing barriers and dealing with fish passage. There are a number of these types of things.
The program is new, as members will know. The first year was last year, so we only have the first results. But let me just speak to some of the results that we're getting from this program.
In the first round of funding, the first round of support, we did 94 projects, and the estimate is 385. I don't know if that's exactly the number of projects, but there were 94 in the first round, partnering with 74 organizations—community groups, watershed groups, angling groups. We leveraged $7 million with the $3.1 million that came in the first round, so that is $2.25 for every dollar that the government invested. In those 94 projects we have 370 partners that are identified, because we've levered with a number of other groups. So there are 370 partners. They report to us about the number of people who are involved in the project. We've identified 1,700 volunteers that got active with these 94 projects. The estimate is 2.4 million square metres of habitat restored, or 2,000 linear kilometres restored.
In 2014-15—so we're just partway through it—the estimate is that just around 200 more projects are going to get done this year, and then maybe another 100 next year. So it really is making a difference.