THUNDER BAY – The federal government will be delivering nearly $1.9 million directly to the municipality to help launch a three-year program aimed at preventing youth gang activity.
Local MPs Patty Hajdu and Marcus Powlowski were joined by Mayor Ken Boshcoff on Monday at city hall to announce the funds allocated for the Youth Gang Prevention and Intervention Strategy, made available through the federal government's Building Safer Communities Fund (BSCF).
“This funding will be used for a couple of different purposes: First, it will provide some on-the-ground staffing that will help support youth and their families [navigate through] the steps they need to achieve to be successful in their homes and in their lives and in this community,” said Leah Prentice, the City’s Director of Recreation & Culture.
Prentice said the dollars will also support community organizations “working on providing after-school supports to those youth and their families and able to refer those youth and their families to the program for additional support that they might need.”
The funds break down like this for the program:
- Year 1 (2022-2023): $81,500
- Year 2 (2023-2024): $688,318.53
- Year 3 (2024-2025): $688,318.53
- Year 4 (2025-2026); $393,324.86
The information was first shared with city council at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday, Dec. 11 (beginning on Page 18).
The program will address identified risk factors, including but not limited to:
- Mental health and substance use health challenges
- Negative influences in youth lives
- Limited attachment to the community
- Over-reliance on anti-social negative peer association
- Limited parental supervision
- Poor school attendance
- Need for recognition and belonging
Prentice stated that this funding is very specific to the program, when asked if these dollars will help address the larger issue of guns and gangs in Thunder Bay.
“[As MP] Marcus Powlowski [stated earlier], policing is a provincial responsibility. The federal government [can work as a partner to] make sure that provinces and municipalities have the tools that they need,” added MP Patty Hajdu. “I'm really proud of this [announcement] because it talks about prevention. It's a lot harder actually to help people once they've entered the criminal justice system. If you’ve ever had an opportunity to listen to anyone who has gone through that experience, it's extremely difficult. This is the work that actually prevents the violence in the future.”
Boshcoff noted that Monday was a compliment to the responsibility of the provinces to adequately fund enforcement services, and that it really takes all the orders of government cooperating to get some good work done.
The city got notice in April 2022 that it was eligible to receive funding through the BSCF. The application was submitted in August of that year and later in November, the city got the thumbs up for their application.
This past June, city staff submitted a subsequent application for funding for 2023 through 2026. The amended agreement with Public Safety was signed in September.
An annual update report will be presented to city council in 2024 and 2025, with a final program report to be presented following the completion of the program in 2026.
