Around the industry, stakeholders are demanding action from the federal government: Make vehicles harder to steal by updating the country’s nearly 20-year-old safety standards.
Modernizing the Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, one component of the National Action Plan on Combatting Auto Theft, is at the top of the Insurance Bureau of Canada’s (IBC) list of demands related to the country’s auto theft crisis. Modernization of these standards is also being called for by the Équité Association, and these demands are also being echoed by insurers.
Bryan Gast, national vice president of investigative services with Équité points out that the current standard goes back to 2007 and hasn’t been updated since. He adds that a lot of the association’s recommendations went into the national action plan, the modernization of the current standard being one of them.
When the current standard was created, the most sophisticated personal devices in wide use were Palm Pilots and iPods – never mind the relative supercomputers that a lot of vehicles have onboard in 2025. New standards from the federal government to address the technological developments in vehicles would need to be adopted by Transport Canada.
“That’s probably what’s remaining,” Gast adds. “The CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) got funding. Everything could be done at greater levels, yes, but the fact that CBSA is seeing auto theft as one of their priorities…the fact that they made that shift is significant.” (Previously, the CBSA was predominantly concerned with imports.)
“Getting the vehicle harder to steal in the first place still remains to be, in my view, one of the biggest challenges and barriers to making a sustained long-term decline in auto theft in Canada,” Gast says. “It’s unfortunate that when you spend on a vehicle that you still need to spend more to be able to protect the vehicle. That’s why I think, right from the manufacturer, protecting the vehicles and controlling unauthorized computer access to the vehicle is important.”
The sentiment is echoed by CAA Insurance, director of government relations, Elliott Silverstein. “We have been so focused on making recovery the primary concern that we’ve forgotten that we really need to stop these cars from being so easily stolen,” he says. “I think the institution of multi factor authentication is important. We’re used to it in our society these days. Giving people the ability and the tools in their cars to protect their cars is important.”
He also adds his voice to the group calling for updated standards. “The federal government really needs to get to the table,” he adds. “There is that understanding among many sectors that this needs to be done. It’s overdue. We’ve seen a technological evolution in the last 20 years. That’s the last time standards were updated. It’s not consistent with where we need to be.”
The experts agreed to discuss the matter with the Insurance Portal, following the release of data from the IBC showing a notable decline in claims counts and costs related to auto theft in Canada.
Latest numbers
According to the IBC, auto theft claims reached 8,567 in the first half of 2015. In 2024 this had risen to 17,595. In the first half of 2025 this pulled back to 12,887. Claims losses between the first half of 2024 and the first half of 2025 dropped from $547.8-million to $361.5-million. “I do worry about the complacency,” Gast says, adding that the industry and law enforcement are still very reactive to the problem.
“The vehicle nowadays is a commodity. It’s simply a transaction – they’re stealing that vehicle. They’re profiting from it, and right now, the risk reward – it’s a high reward and low risk if you get caught.” Although this is changing, he also says the likelihood of anything consequential happening to criminals is low historically.
He adds that the problem costs $1-billion annually. “That’s what it’s all about. Criminals are trying to get a piece of that and they’re doing it through vehicle theft.”
Silverstein, meanwhile, says all players – law enforcement, insurers and consumers alike all have a role to play in the solution. “If any industry or any sector thinks they don’t have a role in this, that’s a setback for us,” he says.
Insurtech company, MyChoice is educating consumers about the phenomenon, as well. They point out that despite a 19.1 per cent drop in national auto theft in 2025, 44 per cent of stolen cars are never recovered. “The first half of 2025 had a 56.5 per cent vehicle recovery rate, only a 3.4 per cent increase from the same period in 2024,” they write.
Ontario recorded both the highest theft volume and the most significant percentage decline in theft rates. Although auto thefts in the province fell 25.9 per cent year-over-year, they still account for more than 40 per cent of all thefts nationally. Quebec’s vehicle recovery rate is the lowest in the country, at 45.1 per cent, while Alberta’s recovery rate is the highest, coming in at 67.6 per cent.
Stolen for export
Gast says drivers of this disparity can likely be found in the reasons why the vehicles were stolen in the first place. In Alberta, many vehicles are used as crime vehicles that are recovered once the commission of the crime is completed. In other provinces, particularly in those that are closer to ports, the cars are explicitly being stolen for export.
“I don’t equate that to anything to do with law enforcement. These vehicles are stolen from people’s driveways, from anywhere, at all hours. They’re already containerized and out of public view before it’s even reported to police,” Gast says. “It has everything to do with why the vehicle is being stolen in the first place. In Ontario, Quebec, the primary reason is export.”
This disparity between provinces, however, is shifting – Alberta’s recovery rates are also coming down as more cars there are being stolen for re-VINing (a process that is reportedly easier in Alberta than in other provinces) to be sold in neighbouring jurisdictions.
“Ontario made some really good changes to make it harder. Alberta is in the process of making similar changes. But again, criminals are very good at adapting and looking for opportunities and gaps,” Gast says. “There is a lot of effort on the law enforcement side going on. It’s pushed some of those crimes to other jurisdictions.” He adds that towing is another example of this shift. “There’s a lot of towing violence in Toronto and there’s a lot of work done to put a lid on that. A lot of predatory tow companies are now moving west into Alberta.”
Shifting patterns
Factors driving auto theft rates lower include significantly more resources being allocated to law enforcement. (Prior to COVID-19, almost no police departments had dedicated auto theft units.) In Ontario and Quebec, interprovincial work at the port of Montreal has also shifted some activity to other provinces. Another contributing factor, Gast says, are the dedicated attorneys that were attached to a provincial auto theft team established in Ontario. “Now you have prosecutors that are focused on the organized crime element instead of just going after the individual car thief.” This shift, he says, is significant.
“Although auto theft is down, it’s still very high. It’s still nationally and historically high. They’re stealing vehicles for three primary reasons: for export, for re-VINing and for chop shops,” Gast says. “We still see a large amount of vehicles that are being exported. Those really mirror the top 10 list that we do – higher value or newer model vehicles, pickup trucks and SUVs. Those dominate the list.”
He adds that the association’s also observed a 47 per cent increase in the theft of vehicles over $200,000 and that demand for the stolen vehicles remains high.
Industry’s warning
According to the Équité Association, there are more than 50 countries from which demand is fuelling the auto theft crisis in Canada. “The demand is still high,” Gast says. “The problem is still here.” He reiterates that making vehicles harder to steal in the first place will drop some of that demand.
Silverstein says provinces have done the best they can to manage the problem within their own borders but adds that standards are set out by the federal government. “We really need to look forward, not just to fix the gaps that we have today, but also to prevent the challenges that we’re going to be facing tomorrow,” he says. “When the numbers go down there is that false sense of security that things are fixed. Better does not mean resolved. We are not at the finish line yet.”
