Two years later: Auto theft after the national summit

In the two years since the National Summit on Combatting Auto Theft, work done by governments at all levels, law enforcement and others has paid off in the form of a 27% drop in auto theft claims since 2024.

“Auto theft rates have dropped, thanks in large part to concerted efforts by governments and law enforcement to ensure stolen vehicles are seized before they leave Canada’s ports,” says Liam McGuinty, vice president for federal affairs at Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC).

The 2024 National Summit resulted in a National Action Plan on Combatting Auto Theft, which led to delivery on action items, including investments in capacity and technology at the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), and rule changes that grant CBSA greater access to transporter and warehouse facilities at ports.

Despite all this, IBC notes auto theft rates are still far higher than 10 years ago, and that insured auto losses have risen 371% over that period.

Related: How Transport Canada’s latest moves could lower auto premiums

To reverse those claims increases, IBC notes the auto industry must “modernize its anti-theft standards to make vehicles more secure and discourage car thieves.”

Recent proposed amendments to the Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standards from the federal government would replace now outdated vehicle immobilization standards and align them to meet current international theft protection requirements. As such, the proposal includes a new ‘electronic attack tools’ category to stop “the increasingly sophisticated methods that auto thieves have been using over the past decade.”

IBC is urging the federal government to move quickly on these amendments, calling them “an important and welcome step forward in strengthening vehicle security and protecting Canadians by ensuring that all vehicles sold in Canada, including imported vehicles, are designed to withstand modern electronic theft techniques.”

Further, it says the federal government’s work on border security, which has helped reduce the number of stolen vehicles leaving the country, could be bolstered. Since 2024, the government has introduced the Strong Borders Act, which includes a commitment to amend the Customs Act that would strengthen export inspections by CBSA.

Related: How insurers and brokers fight cargo theft

“While this approach is critical, it would be stronger if it also adopted a 72-hour rule that requires vehicle exporters to present their documentation and vehicles at the port 72 hours prior to the planned export,” IBC says in a recent report. “Currently, exporters can provide their documentation weeks after their vehicles have been shipped overseas, limiting the ability to intercept any vehicles that are stolen.”

In a related matter, IBC notes the government hasn’t “addressed unscrupulous actors such as fly-by-night freight forwarders.” It says this lack of regulation and oversight allows bad actors in the auto theft transportation export network to move illegal shipments of stolen vehicles out of Canada.

Lastly, IBC says it would like to see modernization of the Interprovincial Record Exchange system. Doing this, it argues is “critical to improving data sharing with provincial registries and closing vehicle registration loopholes that enable auto theft.” 

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Phil Porado

Phil, an award-winning journalist with over 30 years of experience in financial topics, has been managing editor of Canadian Underwriter for more than three years.