Ottawa is investing an extra $606,000 to create more summer jobs in Toronto neighbourhoods plagued by a recent spike in gun violence.

The money, to be announced by Employment Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk Saturday, will generate an additional 105 jobs for youth between the ages of 15 and 30 in the city’s troubled northwest quadrant.

The new positions in recreation programs, day camps and community agencies, bring the total number of federal summer jobs for Toronto to 6,305, more than double the number created last year.

Neighbourhoods targeted for the “emergency” funding include Lawrence Heights, Black Creek, Jane-Finch, Weston-Mt. Dennis and Rexdale, where a pregnant woman was fatally shot as she sat in a car late last month.

“We were aware that the situation with gangs and violence in Toronto is critical,” Mihychuk said by phone from Edmonton, en route to Fort McMurray where she announced more jobs to help in the cleanup after wildfires devastated that community earlier this spring.

“The MPs from Toronto were lobbying heavily for me to increase the number of jobs, after we had already done the allocation,” she said. “So we looked at it and found a way to provide even more jobs to Toronto to try and help with the situation.”

Canadian youth are facing a crisis, Mihychuk said, with unemployment double the national average of 7.1 per cent and running as high as 80 per cent among indigenous and racial minorities.

“Toronto is expressing itself through violence. Attawapiskat youth are choosing suicide. Those are absolute signs of desperation and a call for help,” she said.

Rexdale resident Tamika Ford says a summer job as a camp counsellor two years ago at St. Alban’s Boys and Girls Club at Jane and Finch changed her life.

“I learned so much from the club and it actually helped me get a management position and the career I have today,” said Ford, 31, who is now the youth co-ordinator for the club.

“A lot of our young men have trouble finding a job and holding a job ... but once they get that foot in the door and learn the work ethic, they will maintain it. It’s just getting that first job,” she said.

“The opportunity to add more jobs will take a lot of youth off the street and give them something more positive to do,” she added.

Shawn Burgess, director of the Weston-Mt. Dennis and Lawrence Heights branch of the boys and girls club, said the additional summer jobs will allow both locations to double the number of students working in day camps. Weston-Mt. Dennis will be able to hire 16 youth and Lawrence Heights will hire 18.

“It means more youth will be able to make some money and more kids in these communities will get to go to camp this summer,” he said.

Liberal MP Ahmed Hussen, whose York South-Weston riding includes the Weston-Mt. Dennis area, said his community is suffering from years of federal underfunding.

“We are focusing on northwest Toronto because this is an area that has been ignored for a long time in terms of investment in crime prevention, in giving young people an opportunity to move up in life and to get that first job in the workplace.”

The new money is part of the Liberal government’s beefed-up Canada Summer Jobs Program aimed at doubling the number of jobs to 70,000 across the country this year. A similar number of summer jobs is forecast for 2017 and 2018. An additional $339 million is being invested over the next three years. Ottawa spent $106 million on 34,000 summer jobs last year.

Take-up was so strong this year that the program surpassed its goal by more than 7,000, said Mihychuk, adding she hopes to top 80,000 next year.

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Under the program, youth must be registered as full-time students in the last academic year and intending to return to school in the fall.

Toronto non-profits, small businesses and public sector employers in the target areas who have already been approved for summer jobs funding but who may not have received all the money they applied for, will be eligible for the new money.

The move comes as Toronto is on track to record its worst year for guns since 2005, dubbed “The Year of the Gun.”

Line Chart comparing years (1986 – 2016):

So far this year there have been 22 deaths attributed to gun violence, including an infant boy who died earlier this month after being born by emergency C-section following the fatal shooting of his mother in Rexdale in May. Candice Rochelle Bobb was killed as she sat in a car.

There have also been three homicides by beatings, three by stabbing, one by motor vehicle, one by strangulation and others by “unknown” causes.

In 2013, there were 22 gun deaths for the entire year. There were 27 gun deaths each in 2011, 2014 and last year. This year, there were 10 homicides in January alone.

Map showing every shooting death (1981-2016) by area:

The city has also seen a rash of horrific near-fatal incidents this year.

“To eradicate gun violence on Toronto streets, we all have to take action,” said Toronto Mayor John Tory.

“By providing additional jobs to Toronto youth through the Canada Summer Jobs Program, the federal government is giving young people alternatives to turning to a life of gangs, guns and violence,” he said.

“This is an important investment and we will continue to work with our federal partners to keep our city safe and make sure all our residents have the opportunities and support they deserve,” he added.

The five Toronto ridings receiving the extra federal summer job funding include: Eglinton-Lawrence, Humber River-Black Creek, Etobicoke North, York Centre and York South-Weston.