Canada announces ‘National Action Plan’ on auto theft

The Canadian government announced Monday what it calls a National Action Plan on Combatting Auto Theft.

It includes a number of new laws aimed at disrupting the operations of thieves in the midst of an auto theft crisis.

“We’re here on Victoria Day because we take this issue extremely seriously. We know the challenge is real and urgent,” said Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland at a press conference in Brampton.

In the wake of the government’s national auto theft summit in February, the Insurance Bureau of Canada said last week that the auto theft crisis is not slowing down and auto theft claims are now well over a billion dollars a year.

But the government says it’s bringing in a three-point plan, including:

Information sharing between police forces and customs officials, with a National Intergovernmental Working Group on Auto Theft;
Allowing more shipping containers to be searched to keep stolen vehicles from being sent overseas; and Tougher penalties for auto theft
“We’re adding new offences with respect to targetting auto theft and its links to violence and to organized crime,” said Arif Virani, minister of justice and attorney general of Canada.

“There are new offences for the possession and distribution of a device used for committing auto theft such as key programming machines…We are also proposing a new offence that targets the ringleaders of most auto thefts.”

Changes will also be aimed at stiffer sentences for people who involve underage teenagers in auto thefts.

“What I think is really critical is thinking about who is directing those youngsters, who is directing that teenager,” Virani said.

But as the government brought MPs and cabinet ministers together on a holiday, the Conservative opposition in parliament called it “another one of their photo ops to talk about the out-of-control auto theft crisis they’ve caused.”