The $600 million is simply the cost of the 159,000 vehicles that were stolen last year times a certain average price for a vehicle. As I said, Canadians are needlessly paying an extra premium in the car insurance they pay in order to account for the fact that we allow 160,000 cars to be stolen in this country. If we took a more vigorous approach to reducing the number of vehicles that are stolen, those savings would be passed on in reduced auto insurance premiums. Our goal, frankly, is to be able to stand before this committee and say, “You know what, Mr. Chairman? Canadians aren't paying a premium anymore because we've finally taken auto theft seriously.”
The reality is that there are all kinds of other costs. The irony, as I mentioned in my remarks, is that we are spending hundreds of millions of dollars additionally in our health care system, in our court system, in policing resources. Why? Because we basically have a catch-and-release policy, so we just redo the work over again, and we're not getting at the problem. I would much sooner have those public resources directed in a more effective way to maybe deal with some of the social, health, and economic problems that some of these car thieves may be facing. I think that would be a much more effective use of resources than simply having a roller coaster and a revolving door in our justice system.