Thank you, Chair. Congratulations, and welcome back to a role you had not too long ago.
I would like to speak on this important issue. I won't be quite as lengthy as my colleague was. I just wanted to mention my concern and disappointment that we're not talking about auto theft here this morning. We had a great list of witnesses who were available to appear before us, including two high-ranking ministers in the Liberal government, whom I was very prepared to ask some questions of. We have moved a motion many times to see if we could get to them. They've now left the room, so we won't be able to ask them any questions. We still have some good witnesses here, of whom it would be nice to ask some questions.
On auto theft, our study is entitled “Growing Problem of Car Thefts in Canada”. That alone shows—and we all agreed to that title—that it's a serious concern. It's been growing immensely. We've heard from a tremendous number of witnesses, throughout this study, just exactly how bad it's getting. We heard from numerous police services—the Montreal Police Service, the OPP, Laval Police, Toronto Police Services—all talking about the rapid increase.
I would just like to touch on a couple of key points, and then I will pass the floor over to my friend and colleague Mr. Caputo. I'd like to talk about the auto theft and how much it's impacting and costing residents right across Canada, specifically in my riding of Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte. I mentioned this once before, and I'm going to repeat it, Chair. I had a resident call me in regard to their young son, who is 19 years old and had a clean driving record, and the renewal for their insurance had gone up $75 a month. They had not received any tickets for their three or four years of clean driving.
Usually, people are used to seeing their rates going down. This resident told me that when the call was made to their insurance company as to why it had gone up $75 a month, which is a lot of money, they were informed it was strictly—and this was the answer that came right from the insurance company—due to the rising auto theft issue.
This is a very serious issue. It's costing people, and it's affecting a lot of people. In Ontario alone, auto theft claims are up 524%. The Toronto police are discussing how brazen thieves are getting. Carjackings have doubled this year. Break and enters have become so frequent that a TPS officer recommended that Torontonians leave their keys by their front doors to prevent thieves from coming further into their houses. It's just remarkable what we're hearing. After nine years, people just don't know, when they wake up in the morning, if their car is going to be in the driveway.
It's a real shame that we couldn't get to some important questions for the ministers today. I had pages of great questions. I have many pages of different quotes from the police services we heard from during our testimony here. I won't get into all that now. I would, as my colleague Mr. Genuis mentioned, like to be put back on the list after that, but I will give the floor over to my friend and colleague Mr. Caputo.