Ms. Damoff, I thank you for that question, and I totally share your concern and the concerns of colleagues who have talked to me about the rising levels of auto theft over the last couple of years.
You're right that we convened a summit in Ottawa with law enforcement leaders from across the country and provincial and territorial ministers of public safety. I'm very happy that our colleagues from the larger provinces, Quebec and Ontario, where this is an issue, participated.
As I said in my opening remarks, the CBSA—obviously with partner police organizations—has done a lot of good work, based on the intelligence that they receive, and 2,000 stolen vehicles have already been retrieved this year. The national trends may show a decrease, we hope, of up to 17% in the first six months of 2024.
Nationally, in Quebec, for example, there's been a 36% decline in stolen vehicles. A decline from a high level is better than a continued increase, but it's certainly not where we want to get to, so I recognize that our work is not done in that regard, Ms. Damoff. We've made changes to the Criminal Code to provide additional tools for law enforcement and prosecutors to address auto theft. We've enhanced intelligence sharing and information sharing among municipal, provincial and federal law enforcement agencies.
The commissioner was recently at an Interpol meeting in Europe and has spoken to me about the very good work that the RCMP has done in terms of sharing information with Interpol and the number of foreign police checks at Interpol. He could, I'm sure, provide details for you in that regard.
On scanning technologies, I had an opportunity at an intermodal rail yard with some colleagues from Brampton to see a backscatter scanner.
Don't laugh, Commissioner. I think that's what it's called.
It's an RCMP scanner, and the RCMP lent it to the CBSA. There was an RCMP officer running the computer in it. This scanner can drive beside steel containers in an intermodal yard and look at two containers high. If they're marked tomato paste, but you see hubcaps and wheels like truck and car wheels, it doesn't look like tomato paste on the screen in the backscatter scanner.
There's a whole bunch of interesting technologies that will help intercept the stolen vehicles before they get to the port of Montreal. That's much more efficient and much less expensive, and it's much more reassuring for the person to get their vehicle back there, rather than finding it buried nine containers deep in one of the busiest ports in the country.
The president of the CBSA has some information on precise technologies that I'm sure will interest all of you.