Canada’s auto theft price for personal passenger automobiles dropped by virtually 19 per cent in 2024 in comparison with the earlier 12 months — however the non-profit that collected the information says the variety of stolen automobiles continues to be “unreasonably” excessive.
And Alberta is rising as an space of concern as a result of thieves there appear to be shifting their consideration away from older vans — usually used to commit crimes after which deserted — towards newer, greater worth automobiles stolen for export.
Équité Affiliation, an insurance coverage crime watchdog, stories that greater than 57,000 personal passenger automobiles had been stolen in Canada final 12 months, down from over 70,000 in 2023.
The affiliation’s report tracks thefts of family automobiles like vehicles, vans, vans and SUVs, and doesn’t embody thefts of economic automobiles.
Stolen for export
Bryan Gast, Équité Affiliation’s vice-president of investigative providers, mentioned Alberta now has the best per capita automobile theft price — and instances of criminals in that province registering stolen automobiles with phoney automobile identification numbers, a follow generally known as re-VINing, are “surging.”
He mentioned that by registering false VIN numbers with a provincial physique, thieves make it far more tough to find out whether or not a automobile has been stolen.
“Automobiles which can be re-VINed are more and more being exported, in addition to being utilized by organized crime teams,” Gast mentioned.
“Basically, it is a approach for them to get free automobiles as a result of they’ve stolen them, registered it, and it is driving round like a official automobile.”
The report blames false VIN registrations for driving down the restoration price of stolen automobiles in Alberta, from 87 and 85 per cent in 2022 and 2023, respectively, to 77 per cent in 2024.
The nationwide stolen automobile restoration price was simply shy of 60 per cent in 2024, up from roughly 56 per cent in 2023. Gast mentioned the nationwide restoration price is way decrease than Alberta’s price partly as a result of automobiles being stolen for export.
Gast added that regulation enforcement is monitoring a spike within the variety of stolen Alberta automobiles being shipped out of japanese ports, together with the Port of Montreal.
Prison networks driving commerce
“That is the entire community of those organized crime teams. It is not only one person who’s doing this. They’ve a community,” he mentioned. “If there’s a whole lot of enforcement happening in a single a part of a rustic, they’ll gravitate to a different.”
When the federal authorities launched its nationwide auto theft motion plan final Might, a lot of its focus was on Ontario and Quebec.
Gast mentioned insurance coverage crimes, together with auto theft, are a key supply of money permitting organized crime teams to fund different operations within the drug and gun trades.
“They’re very related, and the theft of automobiles is how the organized crime teams are financing themselves,” he mentioned.
Gast mentioned there’s work happening “behind the scenes” to fight the unfold of faux VIN numbers. He declined to share particulars publicly with the intention to “make it tougher for criminals.”
He famous that techniques to frustrate using false VIN numbers are “undoubtedly working higher” in Ontario.
The report credit a lot of the decline in automobile thefts to enhanced regulation enforcement methods enacted final 12 months as a part of the broader federal motion plan.
That motion plan elevated co-ordination between numerous police companies, ramped up X-ray scanning of delivery containers at ports, and launched steeper felony penalties.
The most important regional lower in auto thefts was recorded in Quebec, the place the quantity dropped from 15,000 in 2023 to about 10,000 final 12 months.
Ontario noticed the variety of auto thefts fall from about 30,000 in 2023 to only beneath 25,000 in 2024. That was nonetheless probably the most thefts recorded by any province in 2024.
B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba noticed a mixed 13 per cent decline in auto thefts, to only over 20,000 automobile thefts final 12 months. Alberta noticed a ten per cent drop in thefts final 12 months.
The Atlantic provinces recorded 2,000 automobiles stolen in each 2023 and 2024.
Gast known as on the federal authorities to maneuver on promised updates to anti-theft rules — a part of the nationwide auto-theft motion plan.
Transport Minister Anita Anand mentioned in October that consultations on the brand new guidelines concluded final summer season, and pledged to introduce modernized rules in 2025.
However Parliament is presently prorogued till March 24 and there’s a excessive probability of opposition events shortly defeating the Liberal authorities and triggering an early election.
“The truth that new, high-value automobiles might be stolen in 20, 30 seconds is an issue. So I hope it stays a precedence,” Gast mentioned.
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