Canadian Members of Parliament voted unanimously to investigate the rising issue of a black market in auto theft that involves stealing Canadian vehicles and exporting them to other countries.
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Canadian MPs
The Commons public safety committee initiated the probe following a motion by Bloc Québécois MP Kristina Michaud during an Oct. 23 meeting. The motion aimed to “study car thefts in Canada as well as federal resources to fight crime,” and it received support from all committee members.
Last year, insurance claims for stolen cars, trucks, and SUVs surpassed $1 billion. The “2022 Vehicle Theft Trend Report” released by insurance members of the Équité Association in June highlighted a total of 70,082 vehicle thefts in the same year. Ontario reported the highest number of stolen autos at 28,131, followed by Quebec at 14,380 and Alberta at 12,965. The report revealed a double-digit year-over-year increase in auto thefts across all provinces between 2021 and 2022.
During the committee meeting, Alberta MP Dane Lloyd emphasized the national scope of the issue, drawing on personal experience as a vehicle owner whose stolen car was recovered with the help of tracking technology. MP Michaud added that 60 percent of cars stolen in Ontario end up at the Port of Montréal before being shipped to countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, constituting about a thousand thefts per month.
The alarming statistics prompted MPs to underscore the severity of the problem, with Liberal MP Iqwinder Gaheer referring to his community in Mississauga-Malton as the car theft capital of Canada. A Rates.ca news release in August revealed that organized crime steals a car every six minutes in Canada, with Toronto experiencing the highest auto theft rates.
The investigation comes at a time when Canadian ports handle 1.8 million shipping containers annually, and the scrutiny of export examinations is minimal. MPs are revisiting the issue after a 2010 bill, “An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (auto theft and trafficking in property obtained by crime),” was introduced to address auto theft concerns. The bill included penalties of up to five years in jail for altering or removing a vehicle identification number and granted the Canada Border Services Agency new access to police databases to track stolen vehicles bound for export.
