Mr. Chair, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak to the committee today to share some of the important work under way to combat auto theft.
During the national summit on combatting auto theft, it was clear that many Canadians are feeling the impact of this serious crime. There's a concerning volume of vehicle theft in Canada, including an increased occurrence of violent thefts. Auto theft is directly affecting the safety of our communities.
The national summit also made clear that solutions require strong partnerships. Combatting vehicle theft requires co-operation among law enforcement organizations, governments, industry and international partners.
While the investigation of each auto theft incident falls under the police of jurisdiction, the RCMP federally supports the important work being done at the provincial and municipal levels to make progress on this issue.
For example, in Quebec the RCMP is participating in Project Rechercher led by the Sûreté du Québec. This project targets criminal groups responsible for the export of stolen vehicles. The RCMP is also involved in Project Vector led by the Ontario Provincial Police, which aims to disrupt organized crime activities on stolen vehicles at all stages of the outbound criminal supply chain.
These joint efforts are producing results. On April 3, the Ontario Provincial Police announced that project vector led to the recovery of 598 vehicles at the Port of Montreal.
Auto theft is also an issue that goes beyond Canada’s borders. The RCMP has a network of liaison officers and analysts deployed around the world to work with our international partners, including on the seizure of stolen vehicles originating from Canada.
I am particularly pleased to inform the committee that, in February, the RCMP integrated the Canadian Police Information Centre’s stolen vehicle information with INTERPOL's stolen motor vehicle database. The Canadian database contains details of more than 104,000 vehicles stolen in Canada. This information is now accessible to the international law enforcement community, which can query vehicles matching Canadian records in the INTERPOL database.
In the first six weeks of the integration with INTERPOL's database, there were over 1,000 query alerts related to Canadian records, and the RCMP has received over 150 new direct requests for international collaboration.
The RCMP's intelligence resources continue to collect and analyze intelligence to inform our direction. Nationally, the RCMP hosts the central bureau for Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, which delivers criminal intelligence products and services to the entire Canadian law enforcement community and other key stakeholders responsible for public safety.
In closing, I'd reiterate that the RCMP is fully engaged with partners to combat auto theft and to ensure that the criminals are held to account.
We look forward to answering any questions the committee members may have today.