Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his interest in helping our small businesses through our Canada emergency business account.
I am very proud of this program. As the members know, it is an interest-free loan and it is partially forgivable. Entrepreneurs right across the country have been saying how important this lifeline was to them.
I would also note that the scale and the speed with which we came out with the CEBA loan program is virtually unparalleled anywhere else in the world. In April, we rolled out this emergency loan program for our businesses, mere days or weeks after the beginning of the pandemic in this country. It has already delivered over $30 billion in emergency credit to about 770,000 Canadian businesses.
Let me get to the question that my colleague is raising. I am very pleased that we were able to ensure that everybody, including those who have personal accounts rather than business accounts, will now be able to use the CEBA loan program. As the member noted, an announcement was made several weeks ago now, but on Monday, the CEBA loan program is now available through financial institutions for people who do have personal accounts. I think that is an important step forward.
We did negotiate with our financial institutions. Our banks are delivering this program. Government is not doing it alone. We did need to work with our financial institutions in order to make this possible, and now it is possible.
I would also note that in the last few weeks we also indicated that we would be expanding the CEBA loan program, and CEBA would go from $40,000 as it has been since April, to $60,000. This additional $20,000 loan would have up to half of it being forgivable upon timely repayment. In total, we are talking about $20,000 that could be forgivable for this important loan that is helping so many small businesses.
I would also like to address another concern that was raised, I believe, by this member in the House with respect to call centres. It is important for clarification and for all of my colleagues in the House and online to note that the call centre, which was initially set up in the summer, was very successfully responding to thousands of calls from small business owners who had questions. The volume increased to an extent that it became a callback centre, and calls are being returned now within 48 to 72 hours. We are getting good feedback from our entrepreneurs, indicating how helpful the agents are in responding to questions.
I am happy to answer a follow-up question from my colleague opposite if there is one.