I could go on and on about this. I realize this is probably one of the most important investments we're making in the forest sector.
For any of us who come from large, vast regions where the forest sector has been the lifeblood of our local economies, at the bottom of the last recession there were a couple of notable observations that one could make. First of all, small mills couldn't and wouldn't survive, not just because of the recession, but because they tended to cut board foot or make a very raw form of pulp, for example. Because of their inability to diversify their product offering, they couldn't carve out anything else that was left.
The IFIT program is focused on accelerating the deployment of highly innovative, first-in-kind technologies at Canadian forest industry facilities, and we've seen some great results already. I can say that to date the program has successfully funded 14 different projects involving 9 world-first technologies, and 75% of projects are creating new products or diversifying recipients' product offering.
In the renewal of this program, the investments in forestry industry transformation program, the response from stakeholders is to just say, “It fits”. It fits what the forest sector is asking for right now. To the extent that they are still in the context of a fragile global economy, the forest sector, and specifically mills and the like, have an opportunity to diversify their product offering.
This program finally has an entry point for all sizes of operations, so it's fair as well, and is focused on innovation for first-in-kind technologies.