A shipping container is unloaded at the Port of Montreal in Montreal. This week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called for the use of X-ray technology to scan for stolen cars at the country’s major ports.CHRISTINNE MUSCHI/Reuters
Ottawa has pledged an extra $28-million to boost the ability of the Canada Border Services Agency to search shipping containers for stolen cars, ahead of the federal government’s national summit on auto theft.
Federal Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced the new cash late Wednesday afternoon, a day before the summit in Ottawa where provincial and federal officials, as well as police and industry representatives, are scheduled to gather.
Both moves follow growing political pressure on the Liberal government to counter the steeply rising number of vehicles stolen from garages and driveways across the country each year. The Insurance Bureau of Canada says claims related to auto theft exceeded a billion dollars for the first time in 2022, hitting $1.2-billion.
Few details were provided Wednesday about the new federal funding. Mr. LeBlanc said the new money means the CBSA will have “more capacity” to search shipping containers that may hold stolen cars and can improve its information sharing with police and other agencies across Canada and internationally.
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The money will also see the agency test “available detection technologies,” including “exploring the use of advanced analytical tools, such as artificial intelligence,” the government said in a press release.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has repeatedly blamed Mr. Trudeau’s government for car-theft’s steep rise. Just this week, he called for the use of X-ray technology to scan for stolen cars at the country’s major ports. Mr. LeBlanc had said on Tuesday that such a move would be discussed at the summit, but that focusing on ports alone would not be a silver bullet.
Ontario Solicitor-General Michael Kerzner on Wednesday released a letter he sent to the minister that calls for tighter border controls and repeats long-standing calls from Premier Doug Ford for mandatory minimum penalties for violent car thefts.
The country’s ports have become “hot spots for organized crime,” the letter reads, as stolen cars slip through ports in Montreal and elsewhere in shipping containers bound for overseas. Mr. Kerzner says Ottawa should increase outbound inspections at ports and rail yards, and invest in new technology to scan shipping containers.
Speaking on Parliament Hill, Mr. LeBlanc said he had heard the same suggestions in previous discussions with Mr. Kerzner and that he looked forward to implementing them with Ontario as a partner.
Mr. LeBlanc also said he will have more to say on Thursday about increasing resources for local police forces and for the RCMP to better work with Interpol in order to crack down on the transnational organized crime driving up car-theft rates.
Industry figures cited by the federal government say the number of car thefts in Toronto reported to police has shot up by 300 per cent since 2015. In both Quebec and Ontario, auto theft rose about 50 per cent from 2021 to 2022. In Alberta, it rose 18.35 per cent, while in Atlantic Canada the increase was 34.5 per cent.
In his letter, Ontario’s Mr. Kerzner also points to his government’s pledge of $51-million over three years, announced last year, to create dedicated auto-theft police and prosecution teams. He said Ontario’s police “are ready to work with federal authorities to identify stolen vehicles on shipping containers before exportation.”
Bryan Gast, a retired Ontario Provincial Police detective now with Equité Association, a national insurance-industry organization that fights fraud, said large-scale organized crime had moved into car theft in Canada in the past few years, and that to counter it, better co-ordination between federal agencies and local police is needed.
“They are turning to vehicle crimes as a commodity,” he said in an interview while en route to Thursday’s summit. “This is not a victimless crime. It’s not just a property crime. They are using these vehicles to finance criminal activity, drugs, weapons, terrorism.”
Mr. Gast praised Ontario’s move to launch new auto-theft teams, with dedicated prosecutors. But he also said Canada’s anti-theft standards for key fobs – which thieves can now hack within seconds – haven’t been updated in years.
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