Public Security Minister Geneviève Guilbault said on Saturday that the Quebec government will spend $250 million over the next five years to help Montreal hire more police officers and combat gun violence.

Guilbault said in a press conference that $45 million annually will allow the city to hire up to 225 additional officers. Montreal had already allocated a similar amount from its own budget, bringing the total maximum number of new officers to 450.

Following numerous recent shootings, Montreal residents need to feel an increased police presence on the streets.

Guilbault says the city and province will also share the cost of hiring 100 additional social workers who can assist and thereby ease the burden on the police.

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said that 30 percent of 911 calls in the city are related to mental health.

The number of shootings in the city has also increased in recent months, and the two killings last Tuesday, which occurred in broad daylight in public places, shook Montreal residents' sense of security again. Within 30 minutes during the lunch hour on Tuesday, a man was shot in the parking lot of Rockland Shopping Center and another on the terrace of a pizza restaurant on Saint Denis Street.