Madam Speaker, as a previous small business owner, I can fully relate to many of the challenges that are faced by small businesses during this pandemic. Canadian businesses are indeed the lifeblood of our communities and the backbone of our economy, which is why our government is committed to helping businesses weather the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, including by assisting them with fixed costs such as rent.
The government's record on the support we have provided to date speaks for itself. In the spring, we quickly put in place a suite of new broad measures through Canada's COVID-19 economic response plan to provide urgent support to Canadians and businesses as the pandemic swept across the country, measures that have helped to protect millions of jobs and support Canadian employers, big and small, to help them weather the storm and keep their workers on the payroll.
For example, the Canada emergency business account, or CEBA, is helping small business owners and not-for-profit operators to cover their unavoidable costs at a time when their revenues have been temporarily reduced. CEBA has already issued over 767,000 loans totalling more than $30.6 billion.
The Canada emergency wage subsidy is helping business owners and other employers to keep employees on the payroll. Since its launch, the wage subsidy has supported over 3.6 million Canadian employees, with more than $39 billion paid out in wage subsidies.
Also consider the Canada business availability program and other credit and liquidity support, totalling $286 billion, which have ensured that business owners have access to the credit they need to pay their bills and help their businesses stay afloat.
We must mention the Canada emergency commercial rent assistance program. Since its launch, CECRA has helped some 130,000 small business tenants who employ over 1.1 million employees by providing over $1.8 billion to pay their rent.
In addition to these measures, the government has provided $85 billion in tax and customs duty payment deferrals to meet liquidity needs of business owners and Canadian families.
In the face of an uncertain economic situation and tightening credit conditions, these measures have supported businesses while protecting the valuable Canadian jobs that depend on them. However, we recognize that many small business owners and entrepreneurs continue to need help with cash flow and paying their operating costs, including rent, and we intend to use our fiscal firepower to make the investments needed to help businesses across Canada face this challenge.
We laid out our intent to continue supporting Canadian businesses in the recent Speech from the Throne, including the extension of the Canada emergency wage subsidy into next summer to help business owners and other employers keep their employees on the payroll.
We will take further steps to bridge vulnerable businesses to the other side of the pandemic by expanding the Canada emergency business account to help business owners with fixed costs and by improving the business credit availability program.
We know that the viability and success of small businesses are essential to our economy. That is why we continue to support them during this unprecedented time, while helping them to build back better and stronger.