In an effort to curb gun violence in the northwest corner of the city, the federal government is allocating an additional $600,000 for youth summer jobs in the area.
Mayor John Tory made the funding announcement alongside a number of Toronto area MPs following a meeting with the federal Toronto Liberal Caucus on Monday morning.
“The Government of Canada… stepped up and provided some immediate, targeted funding to help this summer in finding some additional employment opportunities for young people,” Tory said, adding that the money is expected to create about 100 or more extra jobs.
The mayor was quick to point out that the additional funding isn’t going to completely fix the issue of gun violence in Toronto.
“While this will change lives and help in the challenges faced by these communities…there is no magic wand that is going to be waved by anybody, by any government… that is going to solve this overnight,” Tory told reporters at city hall Monday.
Tory said that the jobs will help keep more young people “productively” occupied this summer.
“This is going to engage them in positive activity and keep them away from those who would have them engage in negative activity. A lot of the time it is idle hands that get in trouble, kids and adults,” Tory said.
Spadina-Fort York MP Adam Vaughan told members of the media that the funding is in addition to money the government already spent to double the number of summer jobs in Toronto this year over last.
Vaughan, a former city councillor in Toronto, said he has seen first-hand how young people can benefit from initiatives like the summer jobs program.
“I’ve seen the kids that have been in trouble and made bad decisions and pulled away from making fatal decisions and it works. The trouble is it is not working in every corner of the city equally. It is not working as effectively as it should be in some corners of the city,” he said.
“Take a look at the northwest quadrant and there has been historic under-investment in those communities. Where are the community centres? Where are the recreation centres?”
The northwest quadrant includes neighbourhoods such as Jane-Finch, Rexdale, Lawrence Heights, and Black Creek.
Vaughan added that a meeting will be held in the next month with students, parents, educators and community leaders to see what “permanent” solutions can be made to help reduce gun violence in Toronto.
“I’ve been to more funerals for young people in this city than for members of my own family. If you had been to one of those funerals and seen the impact that a single bullet can do in this city, it is time to put an end to it,” he said.
“This violence must stop and it is going to require all of us working together to get there. And if it takes money, it bloody well takes money and we’re prepared to partner.”
The funding announcement comes just two weeks after Tory sent a letter sent a letter to federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and Ontario Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Yasir Naqvi, asking for help to curb gun violence in Toronto.
The mayor previously called the recent shootings in the city “shocking” and “scary.”
On May 15, Candice Rochelle Bobb, a pregnant 35-year-old woman, was fatally shot while sitting in the back seat of a vehicle in Jamestown. Her baby, who was delivered via emergency C-section, died in hospital three weeks later.
Earlier this month, a 10-year-old boy was injured after bullets came through the window of his home in the area of Jones and Danforth avenues. He was in bed sleeping when he was hit by gunfire.
