Vehicle theft reaching critical point, costing Canada $1 billion per year: Report

A new report is shining a light on an alarming number of auto thefts happening across Canada and is calling on the federal government to take aim at organized crime.

The report from the Canadian Financing and Leasing Association (CFLA) says a vehicle is stolen every six minutes in Canada, costing the country a billion dollars every year. The organization says the auto theft crisis has been escalating since before the COVID-19 pandemic, with thefts having surged by 300 per cent in Toronto alone since 2015.

The CFLA says the thefts pose a significant safety and financial risk and help fuel illicit activities. Organized crime rings typically exploit the export market in three ways:

• Identity theft on financed vehicles – criminals create fake identities of people or businesses to finance vehicle
• ReVINing – exploiting loopholes in provincial vehicle registries to replace the vehicle identification number (VIN) on vehicles
• Container export – shipping stolen vehicles overseas to remove them from North American vehicle registries

CEO Michael Rothe says all levels of government, police, manufacturers, dealers, insurers and consumers need to come together to take action.

“We need to hit organized crime where it hurts,” he says. “We need to cut off a significant source of their funding.”

The report proposes a number of strategies that aim to address the rising rates of auto theft.

“The recommendations range from public education programs, the reestablishment of provincial auto-theft teams across the country, and a permanent national coordinating body for vehicle theft programs,” says Rothe.

He says one strategy is the modernization of vehicle and license registries across the country, and their integration between provincial counterparts.

“This would be a big step forward in ensuring and avoiding the duplication of VIN numbers,” Rothe says. “(This) is a leading cause and furtherance of the resale and export of these stolen vehicles.”

Last month, the Ford government committed over $50 million over a three year period to target auto thefts in Ontario — including a new task force for targeting organized crime. As well, the government says it is creating a major auto theft prosecution team to provide dedicated legal and prosecution support to the OPP when taking complex cases to court.

The money is also set to go toward a grant for police services for extra tools, supports and resources to tackle auto theft, including technology to find and identify stolen vehicles, as well as for public awareness campaigns.