Canada is facing an uphill battle against car theft

One of the world's worst countries for car thefts is not one that you might expect. Nevertheless, Canada is dealing with an epidemic of stolen vehicles. Despite many Canadians going to extreme lengths to protect their valuables, car thefts in the land of maple leaves continue to be a widespread and pervasive problem. 

While the issue has been ongoing, recent years have seen a significant uptick in the crime. Car thefts were up 24% across the country in 2022, according to The New York Times, and in Canada's largest city, Toronto, thefts have risen 150% over the last six years. Just how many cars are stolen in Canada, and why has it become such a significant crime? 

How many cars are stolen in Canada?

The number is staggering: More than 105,000 cars have been stolen in Canada since 2022, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), which translates to one every five minutes. Since February 2024 alone, more than 1,500 vehicles first stolen in Canada have been detected around the world, according to Interpol. Stolen Canadian cars are currently being identified at a rate of more than 200 per week, the international policing agency said.

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Most of these vehicles "are being identified in other countries, typically at ports of entry," Jalopnik said. Notably, not even "members of the Canadian government are untouched by the waves of thefts." Former Canadian Justice Minister David Lametti "had his government-issued car stolen three times over the past three years," and the same Highlander XLE that was stolen from Lametti "was stolen from his successor, Arif Virani, in November 2023."

It is true that "the U.S., Canada and the U.K. have all experienced a spike in car thefts since the Covid-19 pandemic," said the BBC. But "Canada's rate of thefts (262.5 per 100,000 people) is higher than that of England and Wales (220 per 100,000 people)."  

Why is car theft in Canada so bad? 

"The pervasiveness of car thefts in Canada is surprising given how small the country's population is compared to the U.S. and the U.K. — other countries with high rates of such crime," Alexis Piquero, the director of the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, said to the BBC. 

It is true that the Covid pandemic has played a significant role in the auto theft spike, both in Canada and globally. Cars "have become a lucrative business for crime rings in recent years," and "auto parts and semiconductor shortages during the Covid-19 pandemic constrained car production and increased demand for newer-model cars already on the road,"  Bryan Gast, the vice president of investigative services at Canadian insurance fraud tracker Équité Association, said to The Wall Street Journal. 

Many stolen Canadian cars are often found in Africa, where "demand for used cars in African countries is surging" due to a growing middle class on the continent, said the Journal. Around 40% of the world's used cars are in Africa, and "newer models of cars such as the Honda CR-V sport-utility vehicle are sold at substantial markups to what they could fetch in Canada." This makes cars attractive targets for Canadian thieves looking to sell products offshore. These thieves, many associated with large crime rings, use the cars "as currency, using proceeds from selling the vehicles in foreign markets to fund drugs and arms operations as a way of avoiding the Canadian banking system," Gast said. 

And while Canada's fight against auto theft "has largely focused on ramping up inspections at shipping ports," criminals are "increasingly selling hot vehicles in Canada to unsuspecting buyers with little protection, exploiting a weakness in provincial registration systems that veteran investigators argue needs to be fixed," said the CBC. 

Car theft remains "one of the top three revenue generators for organized crime," Nick Milinovich, deputy chief of the Peel Regional Police, said to the CBC. It is "high reward, low risk and an easy crime."