Public Safety Minister pushes back on opposition criticism over the country’s soaring auto thefts

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Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc pushed back on opposition criticism over the country’s soaring number of auto thefts Tuesday, saying the idea the federal government alone can stop the problem in communities across Canada is disingenuous.

Mr. LeBlanc spoke on Parliament Hill about auto thefts ahead of a national summit in the capital about the issue on Thursday. That event was announced at a recent meeting of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet in Montreal and is to include federal, provincial and territorial governments and industry partners to craft a more co-ordinated response.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada calls auto thefts a national crisis. Data collected by its sister organization, Équité Association, said that 34,861 vehicles were stolen in the first half of 2023, with Ontario having the greatest number of thefts (15,044), followed by Quebec (7,831).

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has been focused on the issue and wants to see greater federal intervention in response to it, reiterated that message Tuesday with a vow to improve monitoring at ports.

But Mr. LeBlanc said that the problem cannot be solved by focusing on ports alone.

“You can’t stop the problem by choking off the final departure point for vehicles that may have been stolen,” Mr. LeBlanc said. “This is a complex problem.”

Speaking at the Port of Montreal on Tuesday, Mr. Poilievre promised to take steps including bolstering the use of X-ray technology at the country’s four major ports in Vancouver, Halifax, Prince Rupert and Montreal. He said this would allow for rapid scanning of containers that have vehicles inside to determine whether what’s inside the container matches what is stated on a manifest.

Ports have been turned into “parking lots” for stolen vehicles, Mr. Poilievre said.

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“We have people who have AirTags in their vehicles who know that the vehicle is stolen from their house, it’s been taken by a truck, it’s been put on a train, the train is coming here,” he said.

Mr. Poilievre said people have seen their vehicle is going to Montreal through an application on their phone but that police are unable to stop it, resulting in the vehicle ultimately crossing the Atlantic to be sold off to organized crime.

Mr. LeBlanc said Tuesday that in discussions with law-enforcement authorities, he has heard the only way to attack this problem is to have local officers working with provincial police, the RCMP and the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA).

“Obviously, the ability for technology to properly examine what’s inside all of these containers, is a question that we’re going to talk about,” Mr. LeBlanc said.

Data from CBSA indicate that the agency intercepted 1,806 stolen vehicles in 2023 and 266 so far this year.

Figures recently tabled by the government in the House of Commons by Jennifer O’Connell, the parliamentary secretary to the Public Safety Minister, indicated that the number of stolen vehicles retrieved by the CBSA at the Port of Montreal was 1,020 in 2021, 1,050 in 2022, and 1,075 in 2023 (to Dec. 6).

Ms. O’Connell said the agency acts on all referrals received from police of local jurisdiction. She also said CBSA assesses marine containers to identify high-risk shipments to determine whether further action is required.

Detective Doug Belanger of the Ottawa Police Service said Tuesday that in 2022 and 2023, police have seen 1,100 to 1,300 organized vehicle thefts. Based on figures from this month and last, he said the service is on pace to see the same kind of figures for the rest of this year.

Det. Belanger said he has worked with a lot of investigators in agencies across the Greater Toronto Area and in Quebec, adding that criminal groups are not local necessarily and they do not respect boundaries.

Stolen vehicles have been tracked down in used lots in Nigeria, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates, he said.

Det. Belanger said he doesn’t think people appreciate how easy it is to steal vehicles. He said individuals may choose to invest in prevention tools, such as the use of engine immobilizers or the use of locks that clamp on to a diagnostic port inside vehicles, so they can avoid the “nightmare” of staggering insurance rates, paying an insurance deductible and trying to find a replacement vehicle.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify that auto theft statistics were collected by Équité Association, a sister organization to The Insurance Bureau of Canada.