Public Safety Committee on Sept. 25th, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

Thank you, Mr. Oldham.

Mr. McCrorie, you have the floor.

[Aaron McCrorie, Vice-President, Intelligence and Enforcement, Canada Border Services Agency]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to discuss progress in combatting auto theft.

I'm Aaron McCrorie, the vice-president for intelligence enforcement at the Canada Border Services Agency.

Auto theft is a complex issue driven by organized crime that fuels broader criminal networks and undermines public confidence. It requires more than a single agency to address; it demands a unified, coordinated response. Auto theft has personal, social and economic impacts and is a priority for the Canada Border Services Agency.

Our adversaries are transnational criminals who collaborate across borders. Successfully disrupting and defeating them therefore also depends on collaboration. The Canada Border Services Agency is working with law enforcement partners and stakeholders such as the Équité Association to support the continued work on combatting auto theft.

Prior to and after the national summit on combatting auto theft in February 2024, the agency has been focused on auto theft. We have responded to 100% of referrals received from the police of jurisdiction, and over 1,800 interceptions of stolen vehicles were made in 2023.

In 2024, the Canada Border Services Agency intercepted 2,277 stolen vehicles, and in 2025, as of September 23, 1,155 have been intercepted. These interceptions were driven by referrals from policing partners and our own intelligence-driven targeting. This highlights the importance of strong partnerships and coordinated efforts among the CBSA, the RCMP, and provincial and municipal police services, as well as with other key stakeholders.

The Canada Border Services Agency undertook additional work following the National Summit on Combatting Auto Theft with the dedicated funding received. For example, we deployed scanning technology in the greater Toronto area to enhance our ability to examine cargo containers at intermodal facilities destined for export.

We are supporting police-led joint intelligence groups and coordinating the sharing of intelligence and information on auto theft to support law enforcement investigations.

We have also led regular meetings with the chiefs of police to discuss the progress on combatting auto theft and exchange information on trends and intelligence.

The Canada Border Services Agency, in partnership with the Department of Justice, continues to review its legislative frameworks. A review of reporting obligations and compliance measures is in progress to ensure that the CBSA has the necessary tools, laws and regulations to detect stolen vehicles before they are exported.

Équité Association is reporting a 19.1% decrease in auto theft in the first half of 2025 compared to 2024, which I would argue—and it's echoed by Équité—is the result of the collective efforts of police of jurisdiction, the RCMP, the Canada Border Services Agency, the Équité Association and other partners.

The Équité Association report also notes significant decreases of theft in Ontario, which is down 25.9%, and in Quebec, which is down 22.2%. These are provinces that previously experienced the highest auto theft rates from 2021 to 2023.

Coordinated efforts have shown great results, and we are committed to continuing these efforts with partners.

I look forward to answering any questions the committee may have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

Thank you, Mr. McCrorie.

Mr. Price, the floor is yours.

[Liam Price, Director General, International Special Services, Royal Canadian Mounted Police]

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much for the opportunity to provide an update to the committee on the RCMP's work to combat auto theft as part of the national action plan.

My name is Liam Price, and I am the director general of international special services within federal policing at the RCMP. It's a hard title. Essentially, it's our relations with Interpol, our posts overseas and our peace operations around the world.

Addressing auto theft requires strong partnerships. Co-operation among police services, governments, industry and international partners is essential to addressing this agile, resilient and persistent threat. While the investigation of each auto theft incident falls under the police of jurisdiction in Canada, the RCMP plays three essential roles.

First, our federal policing mandate enables us to investigate the most serious threats to Canada.

Second, we also take a leadership role as the national police force supporting provincial and municipal efforts.

Finally, we act as the local police force in communities under contract.

Under the pillars of the action plan, the RCMP, as co-lead or lead, is responsible for a number of activities. I'd like to provide some highlights of our efforts and then focus on my area of responsibility, which is international co-operation.

Domestically, as you've heard from my colleagues, the RCMP continues to participate in multiple active joint task forces across the country. These include, for example in Quebec, Project Rechercher, which is led by the Sûreté du Québec. Also, there is Project Vector, which is led by the Ontario Provincial Police.

These efforts aim to disrupt organized crime activities for stolen vehicles at all stages, and they are producing results. Overall, Project Rechercher has led to some of the seizures you've heard about already, such as the seizure of some 1,300 stolen vehicles, as well as the repatriation of more than 100 from overseas. This has resulted in 48 arrests and more than $1 billion in funds seized, and to date, Project Vector has contributed to the seizure of many of the vehicles intercepted at the port of Montreal that were bound for overseas.

We also continue to collect, analyze and disseminate intelligence to inform our collective direction, and we deliver training to support our collective efforts. Criminal Intelligence Service Canada and the Canadian Police College, which are both hosted by the RCMP, are leaders in these areas.

Let me now shift to my area of responsibility from the more transnational perspective.

Auto theft is an issue that goes beyond Canada's borders. It is a global phenomenon that requires global responses. To this end, as you've heard from my colleagues, we've significantly expanded our efforts to share information about Canadian stolen vehicles with foreign partners.

Since February 2024, data from CPIC, the Canadian Police Information Centre, has been integrated with Interpol's stolen motor vehicle database. That means details on more than 150,000 stolen cars from Canada are now integrated in the global fight around the world.

By sharing this data, we have made it easier for foreign police to identify whether a car in front of them may have been stolen here in Canada. This is working. As you've heard, we've received notification that foreign police have checked and found stolen Canadian cars more than 4,000 times. On the back of that, we've received hundreds of requests for collaboration on investigations. As a result, that's helping us recover stolen vehicles and target the networks behind the thefts.

However, we are doing more than that. We're also taking this effort overseas. As you heard from Director General Oldham, we are deploying experts as part of multinational operations, such as Operation Safe Wheels under the auspices of Interpol, which is funded by Canada, to West Africa to help local authorities there target imports of vehicles to the region by organized crime. Many of the vehicles we found there with Interpol and with local authorities did come from Canada.

In closing, I would just like to reiterate that the RCMP remains engaged with partners to combat auto theft and to ensure that criminals are held to account.

We know that criminal networks are quick to adapt, and we appreciate the ongoing collaboration among partners to deprive criminal groups of this important profit centre and reduce harm to our communities.

I look forward to answering any questions committee members may have today.

Thank you, sir.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

I'd like to thank the three witnesses for their opening remarks.

We're now going to open it up to questions, starting with the Conservative Party.

Mr. Caputo, you have the floor.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all our witnesses.

This question is for Mr. McCrorie from the CBSA.

The government promised 1,000 new CBSA officers. You're obviously aware of that. How many have been hired?

[Aaron McCrorie]

So far this year, based on the funding we got in the fall economic statement, we've hired 30 new officers to work on removals and 36 new officers to work on the new technology that we're purchasing. We're developing the plans to look at how we hire and bring on board the additional 1,000.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, BC]

Is that 36 in total, or 66?

[Aaron McCrorie]

It's 66. Let me clarify that those are the 66 from the fall economic statement.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, BC]

Do those 66 specifically count toward the 1,000 that have been promised?

[Aaron McCrorie]

Those are in addition to the 1,000.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, BC]

If they're in addition, then you haven't hired any of the 1,000 that have been promised. Is that correct?

[Aaron McCrorie]

We're in the process of developing our plan to hire them.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, BC]

Let's be real: We've all worked for the government, and “in the process of” is something of an indefinite timeline. The reality is that Canadians were promised 1,000 new officers at the border. At the rate we are going, by the rough math that I'm doing here, it will take seven years to hire those 1,000 officers. Isn't that of concern?

[Aaron McCrorie]

I don't think it's going to take seven years. Our HR department is looking at how we can expedite this in working with our college to bring people on as quickly as they can.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, BC]

What I'm saying is that this was a promise and that the promise hasn't been kept, because 66 have been hired. We can all agree on that.

[Aaron McCrorie]

I'm telling you that we're developing our action plan so that we can bring those 1,000 officers on board in addition to others we bring on as part of our—

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, BC]

Mr. Price, I will put the same question to you. Of the 1,000 RCMP officers, how many have been hired?

[Liam Price]

Sir, I don't know. It's not my area of responsibility.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, BC]

I get that it's not your area of responsibility, but with all due respect, you are at the public safety committee, and I anticipated that you would have anticipated this question would be asked. Is that fair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Jean-Yves Duclos]

Let me point out that there are thousands of officials throughout the government, as we know. Some of them come to discuss a specific topic. The topic today is car theft. If you can focus your questions on car theft, that would be useful.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, BC]

With all due respect, Mr. Chair, the number of officers that were promised at the border directly impacts car thefts, so I'm going to continue on here.

Sir, clearly you knew that this was going to come up. Can you get hold of somebody who can get us that number?

[Liam Price]

I'd be happy to take it on notice and get back to you with details.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, BC]

We're going to have another round here soon, and you have two other panel mates—

[Marianne Dandurand, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.