Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to respond to the hon. member for York South—Weston. Ensuring that vulnerable Canadians have access to affordable housing is a matter of great importance to our government. This is why we have made unprecedented investments in housing over the past nine years. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians have benefited from these investments, including low-income seniors in the hon. member's riding.
Through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, our government has invested more than $16.5 billion in housing since 2006, and we are continuing this important work. Again this year, Canada's national housing agency will provide approximately $2 billion in housing investments on behalf of the Government of Canada.
We have also ensured continuity of federal funding for housing programs through the investment in affordable housing, a collaborative effort with the provinces and territories to reduce the number of Canadians in housing need. This initiative was launched by our government in 2011 and has been renewed to 2019 with total federal funding of close to $2 billion over eight years.
This funding is being delivered through bilateral agreements with each province and territory. We believe that provinces and territories are best positioned to design and deliver programs that address local housing needs, and these agreements give them the flexibility to do so. Importantly, they include a commitment of matching funding from the province or territory, thus ensuring that the investment in affordable housing helps as many Canadians as possible.
The hon. member will be pleased to know that one of the ways provinces and territories can use federal funding under the investment in affordable housing is to support projects that may face financial difficulties once their long-term housing agreements with CMHC have matured. As the minister has advised the House on previous occasions, the majority of non-profit and co-operative housing projects are expected to be financially viable and mortgage-free when their agreements mature and federal funding ends, as planned, on dates that have been known since the agreements were signed decades ago. For projects that may face financial difficulties when subsidies end, CMHC has been actively working to help them prepare for the end of their operating agreements.
I want to assure the hon. member that we are not ignoring the housing needs of seniors in his riding or anywhere else in Canada. In fact, they have been key beneficiaries of our housing investments. Through Canada's economic action plan, our government has invested over $1 billion to renovate and retrofit nearly 15,000 social housing projects since 2009, working largely in partnership with provinces and territories. As well, members will recall that economic action plan 2009 provided funding of $400 million for the construction of new housing for low-income seniors and $75 million for new housing for people with disabilities. These investments resulted in the construction of more than 9,000 new housing units for low-income seniors and persons with disabilities across the country.
Since 2006, CMHC's affordable housing centre has helped to create more than 25,000 affordable housing units, including close to 11,000 units for seniors for projects that do not require ongoing federal assistance.
Working with the provinces and territories, we are making smart investments to ensure that Canadians have access to the housing they need.