Great, me too.
I'd like to refer to evidence regarding the recreational fisheries conservation partnerships program, and I will provide some numbers produced by Kevin Stringer who was senior assistant deputy minister of the department from October 2013 to July 2016. He talked about $3.1 million spent at that time; 74 different organizations undertook 94 habitat restoration projects. In addition, we leveraged an additional $7 million that was brought to those same projects from partners. That's the 1:1.25 leverage ratio. There were 380 partners involved in those 94 projects, 1,700 volunteers, and the estimation is that 2.4 million square metres and 2,000 linear kilometres of recreational fisheries habitat were restored, including restoring access. That is a quantifiable indicator of the effect of our new Fisheries Act, which enabled this kind of program to proceed.
I think it's truly remarkable that the recreational fisheries community, which the Canadian Wildlife Federation represents in many different ways, was able to mobilize its resources and expertise to create meaningful, on-the-ground fisheries conservation projects that benefited local communities. This was the intent of our new act, and I'm so proud of that particular program because it generated real and meaningful conservation results.