Vehicle thefts down 10 per cent in first half of 2026

In the first half of 2026, the number of vehicles stolen in Canada decreased by 10.1 per cent compared with the same period last year. Since the peak recorded in 2023, the decline has reached 48 per cent over three years. 

Équité Association released its semi-annual report on national vehicle theft trends on Aug. 11. In 2023, the organization reported 33,338 passenger vehicles stolen during the first half of the year. In 2026, that number fell to 20,759 vehicles during the first six months of the year. 

Western Canada recorded the largest decrease in the number of thefts in 2026, as shown in Table 1 below. 

Trends 

The passenger vehicle category includes cars (sedans, coupes, hatchbacks and station wagons), pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and vans. 

According to Équité Association, the decline in passenger vehicle theft in Canada demonstrates the success of the partnerships established by the organization and the collaborative initiatives implemented through the federal government’s National Action Plan on Combatting Auto Theft. 

The decrease in the number of stolen vehicles is even greater in Alberta, reaching 15.1 per cent over the same period. In 2025, some 4,411 passenger vehicles were reported stolen in the province during the first half of the year. In 2026, that number fell to 3,744. 

Recovery rate 

Nationally, the recovery rate for stolen vehicles was 53.9 per cent during the first six months of 2026. This represents a decrease of 2.6 percentage points compared with the rate recorded for the same period a year earlier, which stood at 56.5 per cent. 

As shown in Table 2 below, the downward trend was also observed in the country’s various regions. In Alberta, the recovery rate for stolen vehicles increased from 67.6 per cent in 2025 to 69.0 per cent in 2026. 

Regulations need to be modernized 

According to Équité Association, modernizing anti-theft system requirements “is an essential next step” if this downward trend is to be maintained. In addition to disrupting organized crime activities, this regulatory overhaul would improve community safety and ease the financial burden on Canadian households, according to Bryan Gast, national vice-president, investigative services at Équité Association. 

The modernization of Transport Canada’s Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations has still not been completed, even though the insurance industry and law enforcement agencies have been calling for it for several years. “It is time for manufacturers to step up,” says Gast. 

During Transport Canada’s consultation, Équité Association urged that the regulations mandate “cybersecurity testing requirements through UN Regulation 155 and the ISO/SAE 21434, making the vehicles harder to steal in the first place.” This would bring Canadian regulations more closely in line with best practices used elsewhere in the world. 

On July 21, Équité Association reported the results of a national survey conducted by Angus Reid among 2,503 Canadian adults. Some 72 per cent of respondents said they agreed that automakers should install security systems to protect against theft, rather than selling them separately. 

“Organized crime has traded crowbars for technology-based theft such as key fob relay attacks and reprogramming to easily bypass a vehicle’s security system,” Gast says in the July 21, 2026, news release. 

Intercepted at the border 

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) updates monthly data on the total number of stolen vehicles intercepted and detained by Canadian border services officers. 

The data in Table 3 below represent vehicles detained by the CBSA across all modes of transportation. The figures show that seizures at port facilities in Western Canada have been increasing since 2024, whereas there had been none previously. 

Faced with tighter surveillance at the ports of Montreal and Halifax, criminal networks have increasingly begun turning to British Columbia to export vehicles stolen in Canada to foreign markets. 

As the Insurance Portal reported in this recent article, financial fraud is increasingly being used by criminal networks to obtain vehicles that are in demand internationally.