Public Safety committee  I would add that, since March 2022, we have been working with the Montreal city police and the CBSA to enhance their ability to search containers. One of the goals of our investigations is to stop the vehicle thieves and dismantle their ring before the vehicles even get to the port.

Public Safety committee  I can start. One of the recommendations of our president of the ADPQ, Monsieur Brochet, was to address the declaration on the manifest, so having some kind of legislation concerning that, because we know that the manifest can be changed once the.... That's one of the aspects, and we agree with that as well.

Public Safety committee  I would add that what we're seeing is organized crime being very good at adjusting to the opportunities out there, in order to make a lot of money quickly. We see it with fraudulent activity. Organized crime has shifted into that. Now it has shifted into car thefts as well. I think what we're seeing is organized crime adjusting to the markets available to it.

Public Safety committee  There are different types of investigations. There are shorter-term and longer-term ones. When we investigate the longer-term ones while trying to dismantle a criminal organization, we're trying to acquire all the evidence to support organized crime charges. In Quebec, our director of criminal and penal prosecutions is in charge of laying the charges, so it's not the police.

Public Safety committee  I think that for us the strategy is really to target more of the networks and the exporters, the ones that are in contact with the clients overseas, the ones that have have contacts with people on the ground. They're the ones pulling the strings. They're the ones who are hiring and recruiting.

Public Safety committee  I'm not going to go into too much detail on the last part of your question, but what I can say is that we do see a the recruitment of street gangs that have a history of violence, of narcotics. That is a certain clientele that is being hired by these criminal organizations to do that, but it's not 100% of the people as well.

Public Safety committee  I would just add something to that. I think this is a good opportunity to do some prevention as well with these young offenders, like we did with the gun violence in Quebec. They're being recruited and they're vulnerable. I think the education piece is very important, and the prevention piece is very important too with these young offenders.

Public Safety committee  Absolutely.

Public Safety committee  Absolutely.

Public Safety committee  That is certainly an issue we have heard about, and a potential solution. There is a division within the Sûreté du Québec that does security screening of certain people. So that is a possibility. On the other hand, if we need to focus on alleviating the crisis, I'm not sure that would have the greatest impact in the short term.

Public Safety committee  I would echo the same thing. We're really concentrating right now on looking at the networks that are exporting and that are hiring and recruiting young adults to do these crimes. We're really looking at dismantling that. I think bait cars solve part of the problem, but not the bigger problem that we're looking at.

Public Safety committee  Absolutely. That would definitely be helpful. It's another tool we'd have in our toolset, but, as we've seen in the past, organized crime has adapted to what we've put forward. We have to keep—

Public Safety committee  —vigilant and keep the pressure on.

Public Safety committee  As I said earlier, the structure of organizations involved in vehicle theft is complex. There are different roles. Thieves are in the field and are now younger. There are also customers, exporters and overseas buyers. The aim is certainly to attack all levels of organizations, from the lowest to the highest, as well as internationally.

Public Safety committee  I think that's one of the problems. I don't think there's a silver bullet. I don't think there's one solution. There are many facets to this problem, and that's why the partnerships are so important. Definitely, it's easier to steal. The technology is definitely a problem. One of the four recommendations by our president of the ADPQ is to legislate the automakers.