Mr. Chair, I am pleased to be able to complete de minister's answer, given that he had little time to respond to this excellent question.
The way in which information is presented to the committee sometimes may lead to confusion. Ms. Moore, you correctly mentioned that the amount had decreased by $37.5 million this year compared to last. This is because the program expired on March 31, 2014, but its renewal, while it was announced in the budget, does not appear in the main estimates. However, it will appear in the supplementary estimates, which will be presented to parliamentarians later on.
In the past, the Investments in Forest Industry Transformation initiative totalled $100 million over four years. For last year, the $37.5 million decrease is explained by the fact that certain funds would normally have been spent over the course of the first three years, but they were pushed back to the fourth year. The program was renewed with an amount of $90.4 million over four years. As I was saying earlier on, these amounts will appear in the next supplementary estimates.
You also asked about the number of projects. Fourteen projects were funded. The funding for the first cycle of the program was used. In the case of the 14 projects funded across Canada, we are talking about first generation technologies. We expect that the $90.4 million will allow us to support between 12 and 15 projects across the country.