Canada Border Services has intercepted few stolen vehicles shipped through the Port of Montreal by organized crime as the agency grapples with understaffing across the country.
A total 4,695 stolen vehicles were intercepted in Montreal between 2019 to 2023, the border agency said in an Inquiry Of Ministry recently tabled in the House of Commons. The figures were disclosed at the request of Conservative MP Luc Berthold.
The report also acknowledged that the agency doesn’t know the true scope of the black market auto operation.
“The Canada Border Services Agency cannot provide an estimate of the number of stolen vehicles that have arrived at or passed through the Port of Montreal,” managers wrote in the report which was first obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter. “The agency acts on all referrals received from police.”
Although the Port of Montreal has been identified by Ottawa as the number-one export hub in Canada for stolen vehicles bound for Africa and the Middle East, few border agents are on site to perform inspections.
Mark Weber, president of the Customs and Immigration Union, recently told the Commons public safety committee that as few as eight inspectors are on duty at the Port due to staffing issues.
“When I talk about staffing levels, we’re short between 2,000 and 3,000 across the country,” Mr. Weber said during testimony on Feb. 26.
“We have ports operating with half the number of officers they had 10 years ago. We’re having a really hard time. When I say we’re desperately understaffed, we are desperately understaffed.”
Space is another issue the border agency contends with at Montreal’s port. The agency’s examination facility has only six parking spots, Mr. Weber said, adding that the building is also used to examine imports.
He said using the space for both imports and exports makes for very cramped quarters. That, combined with limited staffing, can leave the agency constantly playing catch up.
“Once we find six stolen vehicles, we sometimes have to wait days for someone to come and take the vehicles away before we can inspect anymore,” he said. “With the officers working, we’re looking at examining a maximum of about four containers a day, which could potentially hold eight cars.”
Also an issue, he said, is the X-ray machine being used at the Port of Montreal is borrowed from Windsor because the Montreal machine wasn’t working.
“So now you have a large port of entry like Windsor that doesn’t have one,” he said.
Quebec Association of Police Directors president Pierre Brochet told the committee new powers were needed to curb black marketeering at federal ports.
Organized Crime Auto Thefts
A report by Criminal Intelligence Service Canada found there was a 62 percent increase in the number of organized criminal groups operating in the stolen vehicle market between 2022 and 2023. And that these sophisticated criminals are relying on lower-level criminals such as street gangs to steal the vehicles.Global Automakers of Canada president David Adams told the committee in his Feb. 29 testimony that criminals are increasingly resorting to violent crimes like carjackings and home invasions to steal vehicles.
“Auto theft is a very complex problem for which there are no quick fixes or silver bullets,” Mr. Adams said. “If you look at the reality of where auto theft fits in the hierarchy of organized crime activity, my understanding is that it’s third on their list now. The two things ahead of it are drugs and other such initiatives, including fentanyl.”
“When you think about the consequences of being charged with drug possession or trafficking in drugs, I would say that maybe we need to look at similar types of provisions with respect to the consequences of being prosecuted for auto theft crimes,” he added.
The federal government has described auto theft operations run by organized crime as “highly lucrative” and “highly sophisticated” with rings operating coast to coast.
Vehicle thefts have risen 50 percent in Quebec, 48.3 percent in Ontario, 34.5 percent in Atlantic Canada, and 18.35 percent in Alberta in 2022, according to a government press release.
Stolen vehicles are being used in one of two ways, the government said. Gangs are either working with organized crime groups to send the vehicles to the Middle East and Africa, or the cars are being used to commit crimes within Canada before they are destroyed.
The acceleration in thefts since 2021 prompted a Feb. 8 auto theft summit of political leaders, law enforcement, and industry stakeholders in the nation’s capital in a bid to stem the number of cars being stolen and shipped abroad.
Insurance Bureau of Canada CEO Celyeste Power told government officials at the summit the same thing Mr. Adams told the house committee: the punishment does not currently fit the crime.
“The profits are high, and the penalties are light,” she said, noting that Canada’s Criminal Code currently does not have a minimum sentence for car thieves who are on their first or second offence.
The United States has had more success at curbing stolen vehicle exports than Canada, she added. Only 10 percent of stolen cars in the United States are shipped out, compared to more than 50 percent in Canada.
In the United States, grand theft auto is typically charged as a felony and can result in jail time of a year or more, while incidents of carjacking can result in jail time of 10 years or more.
