Chair and honourable members, it's a pleasure to be back at this committee.
The economic and fiscal update, which I'll call EFU for short, included a number of critical elements for Canadian businesses. I want to focus my remarks on both the elements within Bill C-8 and provide a broader perspective on some of the elements from the EFU.
The first element where I want to underscore our strong support is the funding that was brought in for rapid testing. The Canadian Chamber has seen first-hand the benefits of rapid testing through our rapid testing initiative that distributed over eight million rapid test kits across the country through local chambers directly to small and medium-sized enterprises. Simply put, these kits are helping many businesses stay open, increasing both employee and consumer confidence. Certainly, we believe the rapid tests will remain a critical part of the tool kit as we navigate the endemic existence of COVID-19 in the months and years ahead.
The second element where I want to voice our support is related to the small businesses air quality improvement tax credit. Given the transmission vectors for COVID, we need to maintain support for ventilation to again ensure safe workplaces that will build confidence for consumers as these consumer-facing businesses continue to ramp up their capacity under provincial health regulations.
The third element I want to briefly highlight is the refundable tax credit to support farmers. The impacts of climate change on agriculture have given the industry a stake in taking action, and it is ready to do its part. However, inflationary costs are affecting farmers who face unique needs in Canada. The credit in Bill C-8 is a welcome start, but some of the industry will certainly need more. For example, in harsh climates, where grain drying is important or heating for livestock is needed, higher proportions of carbon-based energy products are used. Certainly, we encourage parliamentarians to look at building on Bill C-8 going forward, such as the study of Bill C-234.
Shifting briefly to the contents of the broader EFU, I want to highlight a few other areas of interest to parliamentarians and the Canadian business community.
The Canadian Chamber was glad to see an extension to HASCAP, given the challenges still facing businesses, as well as the streamlined deduction for home office exemptions, given that we're expecting remote working to continue for the remainder of the 2022 calendar year for many business operations.
We also noted in the EFU the subsequent extension that was announced for CEBA payments to December 2023. This is a welcome step for many of our members, and we hope there can be a further 12-month extension through to December 2024. Underscoring the support, I'd like to point out to members that we had our chamber annual general meeting last autumn, where the extension through to December 2024 was voted on and supported overwhelmingly by delegates from across the country to support those from the hardest-hit sectors.
We also noted the government's continued intent in the EFU to move ahead with a digital services tax, which was recently affirmed in a ways and means motion tabled just before the Christmas recess. The chamber continues to have concerns with not only the design features in the bill but also the retroactive application and the issues that it poses in our relationship with the United States. We hope the government will instead prioritize its efforts toward the multilateral digital services tax agreement that's been agreed by the OECD and G20.
Finally, we also noted that the EFU underscored the government's intent to move ahead with a tax incentive to support carbon capture, utilization and storage. Again, that is welcome news for our members, and as the country makes a transition toward net zero 2050, there is certainly no panacea. With a range of tools, CCUS will be a critical item for the realities of the Canadian economy, not only for the oil and gas sector but also for other sectors like fertilizer, cement and utilities. The tax credit's design and rates not only need to ensure the credit is viable but also recognize that CCUS is going to be a critical part of Canada's transition toward net zero 2050 and also our short-term 2030 climate targets.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on both the contents of Bill C-8 as well as the broader economic and fiscal update.
I look forward to taking questions from members in the Q and A.