Mayor Tory hopes federal funds for youth employment will help stop street violence

CTV Toronto: Funds for anti-violence strategy Toronto is getting money from Ottawa will be aimed at initiatives to reduce violence in some neighbourhoods. John Musselman reports.

A neighbourhood in Toronto that has seen a spike in street violence is getting extra funds for a youth employment program.

The federal government will invest $600,000 to create additional summer jobs for youth in the city’s northwest corner in an effort to curb gun violence.

At a press conference at city hall on Monday, Mayor John Tory alongside Liberal MPs Adam Vaughan, Marco Mendicino, Michael Levitt and city councillors Frances Nunziata and Vincent Crisanti announced that additional investments will be implemented “as soon as next week” in Toronto’s at-risk neighbourhoods.

Tory said the collaboration of local, federal and provincial governments -- as well as school boards -- accelerated the “immediate, targeted funding.”

The ‘Canada Summer Jobs program’ will create an additional 100 employment opportunities predominantly in the city’s northwest.

“While this will change lives and help the challenges that face these communities, it will not be an answer,” Tory said. “Like I’ve seen in the past, there is no magic wand that’s going to be waved by anybody or any government to solve this overnight, but we can do certain things like this to help in the short term.”

“One of the main things coming out of today’s meeting is that everyone’s coming to the table at once,” Tory continued. “We’re not going to worry about exactly whose jurisdiction it is, we’re going to work together to get this done. No more of this jurisdictional ping-pong.”

Liberal MP Adam Vaughan said that MPs intend to sit down youth, community leaders and parents to see what else can be done in specific areas to make a “permanent difference.”

“We invested $39 million in just over ten years -- that’s $3.9 million a year. It’s not enough,” Vaughan said.

“I’ve been to more funerals for young people in the city than I have for my own family. If you’ve ever been to these funerals and seen the impact one bullet can do to a family, you’d understand that it needs to stop… And if it takes money, it bloody well takes money and we’re prepared to partner.”

The announcement comes after Tory 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 reduce gun violence in the city.

Tory said that Goodale recently phoned him and was “responsive” to his letter.

“He (Goodale) assured me they are doing the things needed and doing it with the increased vigor that I had talked about,” Tory said. “Whether it’s through the use of technology or extra efforts made to certain parts (of the city), he understands this is a major contributor to this problem and he’s taking every step to stop the flow of guns in the community.”

In the letter, Tory implies that about half of the handguns seized by police are brought across the border illegally.

The conversation around gun violence in the city was sparked after the shooting death of Candice Rochelle Bobb, a pregnant 35-year-old woman. Back in May, Bobb was killed when the car she was riding in was shot at in Jamestown. Her baby was delivered via emergency C-section but died in hospital three weeks later.

Figures released by Toronto police earlier this month show that shooting incidents are up by more than 57 per cent with nearly 200 incidents this year.

More recently, a 10-year-old boy was asleep in his home in the Jones and Danforth avenues are when bullets pierced through his home and struck him. He was taken to hospital with serious injuries but released a few days later.

“Like the mayor, we’re all concerned about the escalation in violence,” Mendicino said. “This meeting is the beginning chapter in a strategy to stop this.”

“It’s about a whole of government approach. It’s not just about jobs, it’s about infrastructure, it’s about the justice system and it’s about housing. All of these things tie together to get to the root cause that we’ve seen play out over the last several weeks”

“We want to get smart on crime, not just tough on crime,” Vaughan added.

A second meeting about investments in summer employment programs is expected to take place sometime next month.