Can the auto-theft summit put the brakes on rising crime? There’s optimism

Cabinet ministers maintain that Canadians can expect to see action coming out of their Thursday summit on how to tackle what’s been called a “crisis” of rising auto thefts.

“We want to take action on something that that touches people in their daily lives,” Industry Minister Francois-Phillippe Champagne said Wednesday morning on his way into the Liberal caucus meeting.

On Feb 8, cabinet ministers will meet with municipal, provincial and federal law enforcement agencies, Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) officials, representatives from ports and other stakeholders to talk about ways to combat increasing vehicle thefts.

A May 2023 report on the issue from The Canadian Finance and Leasing Association (CFLA) says that a vehicle is stolen every six minutes in Canada.

In this report, the CFLA says that vehicle theft rates had returned to their peak level from the early 2000s. They note that rates began to fall through stakeholder collaboration and improvements in anti-theft technology.

CFLA president and CEO Michael Rothe will attend the summit and provide written submissions. He says he doesn’t want to prejudge what comes out of the summit, but is glad to see it happening.

“At a bare minimum, there’s going to be connections made where we can start talking to one another and coordinating amongst ourselves,” Rothe told Global News.

“But on a higher level, if we see the leadership that I’m hoping we will see coming out of the summit, we’ll see the CBSA and the RCMP taking a leadership role in coordinating across the country to address this issue, because we are a standout country for auto theft.”

Rothe says this is because Canada is a relatively “low-risk” environment for auto thefts.

However, he says one of the things that brought