It is not lost on me that the last number of months have been extremely difficult for Montreal. Last spring, I had the chance to participate in a forum to counter gun violence, at the invitation of Mayor Plante. In attending that particular forum, I was very struck by the young people who spoke about the friends that they had lost. Sadly, since then, we have seen ongoing shootings pretty much consistently and unabated. I have stayed in very close contact with both Mayor Plante, as well as my counterpart, Minister Guilbeault, to try to turn the tide around.
This is why in the summer, as you may recall, I went to announce funds directly for Quebec under the building safer communities fund in the amount of roughly $40 million, of which, I want to say, I believe $17 million or $18 million was to go to Montreal. These funds are specifically designed to stop gun crime before it occurs by looking at root causes, by working with local organizations and by enhancing their capacity to offer programs and services so that people who are at risk, especially young people, make the right choices.
We think this is a critical pillar in our overall strategy to reduce gun violence, and we think that the funds that we've allocated to Quebec and to Montreal will go some way towards achieving that goal.