The Trudeau government wants to mobilize the provinces, the various police forces and representatives of the automobile industry in order to counter a scourge that is growing in the country: car theft.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced on Sunday the holding of a national summit to combat vehicle theft, which will take place in Ottawa on February 8.
PHOTO JUSTIN TANG, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc
Car theft has become a very lucrative and very sophisticated transnational crime that not only affects Canadians, but strengthens criminal organizations with the proceeds of crime, Minister LeBlanc argued in a press scrum alongside four of his colleagues. .
The announcement of this summit came on the first day of a three-day federal cabinet retreat in Montreal aimed at preparing for the start of the parliamentary term.
On average, a car is stolen every six minutes in the country, according to a report published last June. According to auto industry estimates, auto theft rates increased by 50% in Quebec and 48.3% in Ontario in 2022 compared to the previous year.
The port of Montreal is also a strategic installation for the export of stolen vehicles. The majority of these vehicles end up in Africa and the Middle East.
All stratagems are used to thwart the police authorities. In Montreal, stolen vehicles end up at the port because theft networks have registered businesses that serve as fronts to simulate shipments of goods.
Even elected officials do not escape this scourge. On the federal scene, the former Minister of Justice, David Lametti, saw the official vehicle allocated to him by the federal government be stolen by thieves on two occasions, CBC reported last June. The first vehicle, a Toyota Highlander XLE, was stolen on February 11, 2011 and has never been recovered. The second vehicle, again a Toyota Highlander XLE, disappeared on February 13, 2023, but was found a month later.
On the provincial scene, the Minister of International Relations and La Francophonie, Martine Biron, was also the victim of a car theft, reported the Montreal Journal. His company vehicle was stolen on December 5 in the Saint-Émile sector in Quebec. He was finally found a few hours later in Montreal.
The summit proposed by Ottawa aims to identify possible solutions in the short, medium and long term to counter this scourge.
“Collaboration is essential to finding solutions. By bringing together partners from local, provincial and national jurisdictions, during this summit we will be able to better coordinate our collective efforts to fight vehicle theft,” said Ms. LeBlanc.
“Too many Canadians have paid the high price, financially and emotionally, of having their cars stolen,” said Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez.
“Auto theft is a growing criminal phenomenon that affects Canadians from coast to coast. It is essential that we tackle this problem by collaborating with various stakeholders,” underlined the Minister of Industry, François-Phipppe Champagne.