Why auto theft continues to decline in Canada

Auto theft involving private passenger vehicles in Canada decreased 19.1% in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, according to Équité Association’s newly released First Half of 2025: Auto Theft Trend report.

There were significant decreases in Ontario (down 25.9%) and Quebec (22.2%), provinces that previously experienced the highest auto theft rates from 2021 to 2023, Équité notes in a statement Monday, when the report was released.

In the first half of 2025, Ontario saw 9,600 vehicles stolen compared to 12,949 in 2024 H1, while Quebec saw 3,889 in 2025 H1 versus 5,000 in 2024 H1.

“Nationally, the total amount of stolen vehicles for the first half of 2025 at 23,094 is trending positively towards pre-crisis levels of 20,313 in the first half of 2021,” the report says. By comparison, the number of private passenger vehicles stolen in 2024 H1 was 28,549.

In fact, every reported region in Canada, including Alberta and Atlantic Canada, saw decreases of 12.5% and 9%, respectively.

Not working in silos

Bryan Gast, Équité’s national vice president of investigative services, attributes the decline to “not working in silos.” A variety of federal and provincial government ministries, law enforcement agencies, insurers, and industry stakeholders, are collaborating on the problem, including:

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• A provincial auto theft team, lead by the Ontario Provincial Police and partner police agencies, combined with dedicated provincial prosecutors for organized crime charges
• Public Safety Canada’s National Summit on Combatting Auto Theft in 2024. The Canada Border Services Agency also added resources to tackle auto theft, first identified by Équité as a national crisis in 2023
• Even media reports have advised readers and consumers on how to protect themselves from auto theft.

“I think that’s why you’re starting to see the numbers go this way, because there’s been so much collaboration and cooperation on it,” Gast tells CU. “The numbers are down for the second year in a row.”

That said, “even though the numbers are trending down, we still need to continue the momentum,” Gast adds.

For example, he identifies an increase in ‘chop shops,’ where criminals steal vehicles for the purpose of selling them piece by piece, not only domestically, but also internationally. There’s also been a shift towards re-VINing, where a stolen vehicle has its original vehicle identification number replaced with a fake one.

“Re-VINing is an issue across the country,” Gast says. “Alberta has the highest theft rate per capita, and they are dealing with significant re-VINing.”

Next steps

There are a couple of other works in progress, Gast reports. One is the completion of the first harmonized Canada-U.S. Standard for Vehicle Theft Deterrent Equipment and Systems, which is awaiting adoption by Transport Canada. Essentially, any new vehicle sold or manufactured in Canada or the United States would have security packages reflecting the current methods of theft.

“Is that the silver bullet? Will that solve all crime?” Gast asks. “No, but it’s just an added component to make sure that we have declined numbers of theft [to] make it as hard on the criminals as possible to steal a vehicle.”

The other work in progress is establishing a national VIN registry that can promote seamless information-sharing between provincial VIN registries and help prevent reVINing of stolen vehicles.

When it comes to recovery of stolen vehicles, the national recovery rate for the first half of 2025 is 56.5%, up from 53.1% in the same period in 2024. Even though national recoveries are approaching similar levels to the pre-crisis timeframe (and increasing in every region except Western Canada), the stats mean that about 44% of vehicles stolen this year remain unrecovered.

“Canadians have endured the significant impacts of vehicle crime, and while these first half of 2025 numbers are encouraging, the fight is far from over,” Gast says in Équité’s statement.

Jason Contant

Jason has been an award-winning journalist with Canadian Underwriter for more than a decade, including the past three years as associate editor and, before that, as digital editor for seven years.