Ottawa – Auto theft speed is falling due to collective efforts to crack down thieves in Canada, with an industry group that insurance has been focused on fraud and crime.
The équité Association said in a report released on Monday that the number of vehicles stolen at the national level in the first half of 2025 in the first half of 2025 reported the theft at the national level.
The report said that more than 23,000 vehicles were reported stolen in Canada in the first six months of the year.
The decline is particularly in Ontario and Quebec, with annual drops of 25.9 percent and 22.2 percent respectively.
From year to year drops, Atlantic Canada and Western Canada are about nine percent more modest. Alberta saw a fall of 12.5 percent.
The National Vice President of Search Services at Brian Gast, équité Association, government and law enforcement agencies to deal with more and more public awareness about danger and efforts by various levels of law enforcement agencies.
“This is actually a partner of certainty,” he said.
Gast said that law enforcement agencies in Ontario and Quebec have excluded enforcement with police units dedicated to vehicle theft.
So far this year, the residents of Ontario and Quebec have reported 9,600 and 3,889 vehicle theft respectively – the high number that GAST has blamed the large population of the provinces and the proximity to the port of Montreal.
In the first half of 2025, 4,411 vehicles reported the theft, Gast said that Alberta has continued to lead the country in auto theft based on per capita.
The statistics released earlier this week confirms national progress on Canada data file. The agency recorded a 17 percent annual decline in the rate of motor vehicle theft reported by the police, below 239 incidents per 100,000 people last year.
In 2023, there was a 40 percent increase in the number of auto theft at the historic low recorded in 2020, said StateCan.
The trend took place last year when the federal government organized a summit in February to address the car theft.
Ottawa gave millions of dollars to the Canada Border Services Agency to track vehicles leaving through the ports of the country, to deal with gang crime and auto theft after being given $ 121 million to Ontario in January of that year.
Gast said that some progress may probably be attributed to raising awareness about the issue of Canadian people.
“Now I think you can talk to anyone and, if their car is not stolen, they have stolen someone’s car,” he said.
“I think they are taking those precautions and some of those stages to reduce their vehicle with the target.”
The équite association said that the rate of vehicle recovery increased by 3.4 percent to 56.5 percent year after year in the first half of 2025. The organization said that the 57.2 percent of the “east-cottage” level of 57.2 percent recorded in 2021 was near.
Despite the progress on vehicle theft, Canada’s Insurance Bureau warned that it is still a “important concern” and “away from the only factor to contribute to rising auto insurance costs.”
The bureau said in a media statement, “Inflation, tariffs, rising repairs and vehicle replacement costs, legal pressure and a combination of regulatory challenges are running rates across the country.”
The bureau said that tariffs on vehicle parts are increasing the cost of repair and replacement cars.
Gast said that when it is not yet clear, the tariff may increase that domestic chop shops and vehicles are being sent abroad in the équité association.
He said that whenever there is an disruption to supply chains-the semiconductor input a warm object during the Kovid-19 epidemic-the criminal element adapters to meet that demand.
While he has been encouraged by progress, Canada has posted to date in reducing auto theft, he said that there is no time now.
“Don’t consider solving the problem,” he said. “To keep it manageable and the trending number in the right direction, I think we still need to focus on it.”
This report of Canadian Press was first published on 28 July 2025.
Craig Lord, Canadian Press
