44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 6, 2024 10:00AM
- Feb/6/24 10:59:40 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, obviously, I commend my colleague for his parliamentary service in the House of Commons and previously in the Quebec National Assembly. I am fully aware of the statistics that my colleague gave about the number of cars stolen in my province of New Brunswick and in Moncton. I do not disagree at all with the numbers that my colleague provided. That is why we are working to get those numbers down, since they are obviously alarming.
However, I do want to correct my colleague on something. I know that it has often been said that there are five border officers at the port of Montreal who are working to stop the export of stolen vehicles. That is not at all the case. As I said, I went there myself and I saw that there are a lot more than five assigned to that task. We are working with the Montreal city police and the Sûreté du Québec, and we will continue to deploy the personnel needed to do this work.
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- Feb/6/24 11:00:55 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to know that my colleague has convened a national summit to take place later this week to address this important topic.
Still, I would really like to know what the government, what the Minister of Public Safety did before that. Auto theft has always existed. However, since 2021 and 2022 it has skyrocketed. Police services themselves have created a special squad, an initiative led by the Montreal police service, or SPVM, with the Longueuil police service, the Sûreté du Québec and the RCMP.
Did the government participate in these efforts? Did it fund these initiatives? What has it done in the past few years to combat this scourge? What does it want to see come out of its summit? I have a specific question. Last week, I heard on the radio that the chief of the SPVM was not invited to this summit. Let us keep in mind that Montreal is a major hub. Has the government rectified the situation?
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- Feb/6/24 11:03:56 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I was not aware of that comment by our former colleague in this place.
I can tell the member that my interactions with frontline CBSA officers have been extraordinarily positive. I have had an opportunity, with senior officials in Ottawa, to visit a number of CBSA facilities in the short time I have been Minister of Public Safety, including at the Port of Montreal as recently as a few weeks ago.
They are men and women who dedicate themselves to doing difficult work to keep Canadians safe, and intercept the importation of drugs and guns that have done so much damage in our cities and right across the country. Obviously, they are turning their attention to the export of stolen vehicles because one of the best ways we can work with local and regional police is to also bring a choke point at the end, as 60% of the vehicles stolen are, in fact, exported from Canada.
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- Feb/6/24 11:31:52 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am concerned, and I do not think I am the only one. Most of my colleagues and the people in our ridings are concerned to see the Conservatives proposing such simple solutions to problems that are always a bit more complex. We need to take the time to analyze the situation. As my colleague said so well earlier, the argument behind the Conservatives' motion lacks intellectual rigour.
Auto theft is obviously a big problem, and we want to do more to stop it. The Bloc Québécois has been talking about it for months and has been asking the government to do more. It is baffling that the police themselves have joined forces to do more, which in itself is a good thing, but that the federal government, which is responsible for the Canada Border Services Agency and the country's ports, is doing absolutely nothing.
We need to examine the issue properly. There is going to be a summit, and that is good. As I was telling the minister earlier, I hope that the chiefs of Canada's major police forces will be invited, especially the Montreal police chief, because their organizations are already getting results when it comes to tracking down stolen vehicles.
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- Feb/6/24 11:33:12 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is interesting that the Conservatives are now saying “Oh, get tough on crime,” yet when the Harper administration was in government, between 2010 and 2015, it cut close to $600 million from the RCMP budget and laid off 1,100 CBSA officers. To boot, on crime prevention, it underspent $28 million that had already been allocated. The Conservative leader now continues to call for cuts to the RCMP's budget, as well as to the CBSA's.
The member talked about the port, and I absolutely agree. The federal government disbanded the port police in my riding back in 1997, and we have seen the fallout as a result of that.
Would the member support what the NDP has been calling for all along, which is that the government should in fact ensure that the port police is restored?
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- Feb/6/24 11:34:18 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is an interesting question. If we had been able to study the subject at the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, I think that my colleague from the NDP would have had a chance to tell me about that proposal.
For months now, however, the Conservatives have been holding up our work so that we cannot get to it. I invited officials from the Port of Montreal. I invited police chiefs from the Montreal police force, the Sûreté du Québec and the RCMP to come talk to us about the situation and explain what they are doing. What should be restored at the ports? Why is there not enough surveillance?
All of these questions are important, but the Conservatives refuse to let us discuss them. If not for their stalling tactics, we would already be having these discussions at the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security. It is unfortunate that they tell the media that they want to be tough on crime and stop auto theft but that, when it comes time to get to work here in the House of Commons, they balk.
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- Feb/6/24 12:49:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think the member already knows where I stand on cutting police budgets. I disagree with any effort taken by a municipal government that will somehow limit or curtail the ability of the police forces to do their job.
This is a serious problem, and we do not deny it is a serious problem, but serious problems require serious solutions, not slogans. The Leader of the Opposition held a press conference in front of the Port of Montreal and said that he would impose mandatory minimum sentences. There already is a mandatory minimum sentence.
I have sat in rooms with people from the law enforcement community. I have met at other times with automakers and other levels of government. Each of them point fingers in other directions. This needs to be a collaborative effort where everybody gets together in one room and asks what each can do. That is going to happen on Thursday.
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Mr. Speaker, I think we all agree that auto theft is a scourge and needs to be addressed.
I would like my colleague to comment on the rhetoric, the reasoning behind today's Conservative motion. They claim that the explosion in auto theft is because of the Liberal government. They say it is because of Bill C‑5, even though that bill did not receive royal assent until late 2022. They also say it is because sentences are too lenient, but these sentences, which were added to the Criminal Code in 2010, were the result of Bill S‑9. That bill was introduced by the Conservative Party, the government at the time. If the penalties are too lenient, the Conservative Party only has itself to blame.
I wonder what exactly my colleague is proposing. We know there will be a national summit this Thursday. There was talk of giving more resources to the Canada Border Services Agency and giving existing police forces the means they need to take action. In his opinion, what more should the government be doing to counter this scourge?
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- Feb/6/24 2:45:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I can assure my colleague from Miramichi that this government will continue to crack down on auto theft and organized crime. They like fancy slogans where they make up things like “catch and-release”. He is from Miramichi, New Brunswick, and he knows that applies to salmon angling and not serious criminals, so just because he repeats the silly phrase does not make it true. Our government will do what is necessary with provincial partners and local police to crack down on this. We have invested in the CBSA and the RCMP and will continue to do more.
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- Feb/6/24 2:47:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what are we going to do at Thursday's discussion?
For one thing, we are going to discuss exactly what we can do to combat auto theft with the chief of the Montreal police service and other partners.
I was also at the port of Montreal two weeks ago with my colleague, the Minister of Transport. The good news is that we saw a lot more than five border services officers working on this troubling situation.
We will continue to increase the number of Canada Border Services Agency staff, which the Conservatives drastically reduced.
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- Feb/6/24 3:32:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I think it applies to our side of the House on that one.
The government is playing a key role in bringing together partners and stakeholders from across Canada to consider new and meaningful solutions. No one level of government can expect to effectively address this issue on its own, nor can one agency or organization.
Later this week, on Thursday, the Minister of Public Safety will host a national summit on auto theft. He will be joined by the Minister of Justice; the Minister of Transport; the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry; and the President of the Treasury Board, along with numerous provincial counterparts, law enforcement officials and leaders of industry. They will discuss and ensure a coordinated response to this issue. We need all levels of government, including federal, provincial, regional and municipal, as well as partners in industry, auto manufacturers and policing to work together in a coordinated and focused way.
I was at York Regional Police headquarters last week with the Premier of Ontario; Chief MacSween, the police chief of York Region and the presiding president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police; the Minister of Justice; and the Minister of Public Safety to announce the investment of $121 million targeting guns, gangs and auto theft. It is very important that we continue the work and support our frontline officers, which our government has done since day one, instead of and versus the cuts the prior administration brought in across the board, whether it was to border security or directed funding.
This is exactly the approach the federal government is leading on. I am very confident that it will result in meaningful and effective action to address this pernicious activity.
The motion before us proposes we change the law. I expect that this work will comprehensively examine our existing laws, from the investigative tools that police use to the scope of the existing offences and whether they clearly denounce the many ways in which auto theft occurs, including through the use of violence and carjackings, as well as the links between auto theft and organized crime. It is important to remember that our criminal laws in this space are quite broad and far-reaching.
We can take organized crime as an example. We know that the face of auto theft today in Canada involves organized crime. In the GTA, 251 vehicles were taken, put on containers on a ship and brought to the port of Calabria, in southern Italy, with the vehicles destined for the Middle East and Africa. That only happens through transnational organized crime working to do so. We will stamp this activity out. The game is over for these folks. The easy money is done, and we are coming after them.
We see repeated stories of cars being stolen in places such as Ontario, Quebec and my city of Vaughan. Within a matter of days, they are placed on cargo containers and shipped overseas, where they are received and sold. They are then found in destinations in Africa and the Middle East.
Canada's organized crime offences operate independently of underlying criminal conduct, as well as working in tandem with it. This means, for example, that a person is charged with our criminal organization offences independently of being charged with any other underlying offence. To illustrate, a person may be charged with participating in the activities of a criminal organization for scoping out potential cars to steal or committing an indictable offence for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a criminal organization. In other words, they can be charged for stealing the car for the benefit of the criminal organization.
As I mentioned, our organized crime laws work in tandem with other criminal offences. This means that, in addition to being charged with an organized crime offence, the person can be charged with the underlying criminal conduct: the actual theft. In cases where convictions are secured for both, the Criminal Code requires that the sentences imposed be served consecutively, back to back. The Criminal Code also makes clear that a conditional sentence is not possible in cases where an auto theft is prosecuted on indictment and linked to organized crime.
It is important for all parliamentarians to recognize that we have a rich legal framework in place that already provides our police forces with strong tools. If more is to be done, I am confident that the work led by the Minister of Justice and his department will identify it.
I started my remarks by talking about the leadership the federal government is showing in this space. This is leadership in pursuing a strategy that will lead to success and meaningful action to prevent and respond to the rise in auto theft. I strongly support this approach, as it is far more likely to produce the results Canadians expect. In fact, through the first part of 2024, auto thefts in the GTA, and specifically in York Region, are down by over 20%. We are seeing a decline in auto thefts, going in the right direction. Ours is a comprehensive approach that starts with prevention and focuses on industry-specific enhancements, on operational improvements and, of course, on our legal responses.
None of these actions can work on its own to address the complex reality of auto theft; it seems to me that the focus of the motion fails to appreciate this. It is not about just throwing away the key and locking people up for years and years and determining laws to be unconstitutional; rather, it is about providing a holistic all-of-government approach working with industry and insurance to come up with the proper solutions, which they are doing. Currently, when a vehicle such as a Range Rover is purchased, insurance companies will require that a tracker be placed in the vehicle before it can be insured, which leads to a 75% reduction in auto thefts.
Leadership is about taking action and working collaboratively. Just last week, I joined the federal Minister of Public Safety, the federal Minister of Justice, the Premier of Ontario and provincial counterparts to announce a new investment of $121 million to prevent gun and gang violence, including as it relates to auto theft. This is exactly what Canadians, including the residents of York Region and of my riding, expect: governments working together to implement real solutions to address these important issues. We are already seeing a double-digit decline in auto theft in the region of York.
Conservatives are offering nothing but unserious slogans that reduce complex criminal issues to childish political games. Their so-called plan includes measures that already exist in the Criminal Code, such as a mandatory minimum penalty for repeat auto thefts. Their suggestions are not rooted in evidence or research but are classic tough-on-crime Conservative scare tactics that do not keep communities safe.
We will continue to focus on solutions while they continue to try to scare Canadians. The government will continue to work with its partners to ensure that all necessary actions can be taken to better address auto theft. I call on all parliamentarians to similarly work in the spirit of collaboration to identify real solutions for the benefit of us all. It is imperative that, as parliamentarians, our number one responsibility be to keep our communities safe and to make sure our residents feel safe in our communities, including the residents of Vaughan—Woodbridge, whom I am proud to represent.
We know that in 2022-23, criminals understood they could make a lot money by stealing fancy vehicles and shipping them overseas post-COVID. We will put a stop to that. We are putting a stop to that. How do we do that? We do it by working with the insurance companies and the auto manufacturers. I am proud to lead the Liberal auto caucus in dealing with the auto manufacturers. I invite all Canadians, especially all the people of Ontario, to visit the auto show in the coming days to see the new vehicles and the new technology there.
We are working with our provincial counterparts and the Premier of Ontario to make key announcements and key investments in our justice system. The Minister of Public Safety and the Minister of Justice will be overseeing where the laws are, where we need improved actions, where to add resources to our ports and so forth.
Finally, in the existing laws, there are mandatory minimums for auto theft that have been there for years, prior to our government. Of course we need to ensure that our residents are kept safe and that they feel safe in their communities, and we have taken action. For the first part of this year so far, car thefts are down over 20% in the region of York. We will see a further decline as the years go by.
I would say to the criminals out there that we know who they are and that we are going to come to get them. Our police resources will be able to do so.
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- Feb/6/24 3:42:03 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my family and that of the hon. member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo have known each other for over six decades now in this beautiful country.
Auto theft is a very important and severe issue for Canadians, including the residents of my riding. We are undertaking action. We have invested the resources. We will host a national auto summit this Thursday. I have spoken to many of the participants. I look forward to welcoming the chief of police of York Region, Chief MacSween, who is coming up. I have had many conversations with the deputy chiefs of York Region over the last several months, not just several weeks. We were there last week with the Premier of Ontario investing funds.
As for organized crime, the learned member knows very well that Canada has tough laws on organized crime—
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- Feb/6/24 4:43:52 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of members from Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo.
I will say this much. Sometimes, people say really funny things, and my colleague just said something very funny. Perhaps it was because the speech was just not that compelling.
At the end of the day, the member has spoken all about what they have done about auto theft. I will remind him that Bill C-75 did not just raise the sentence, as though he is saying that we are targeting auto theft. It was actually two years less a day that it raised it on summary conviction. It raised every summary conviction to two years less a day. The Liberal government can say that it is targeting this time after time.
There is an epidemic here, and I want to know this: Will the member admit, fundamentally, what police and citizens across the country are telling us, that there is a problem?
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- Feb/6/24 5:05:42 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is definitely a real concern, and it really accounts for a lot of the car thefts we are seeing. Criminals are very computer- and technology-savvy.
There are ways Canadians can mitigate against these procedures, and I know that my local police service is educating the public on the steps they can take. For instance, people should not leave their vehicle in the driveway. If they have a garage, they should park it in the garage. As far as the key fob is concerned, they should make sure it is not readily accessible just inside the front door but close it in a shoebox or something, or perhaps put it in a closet.
I know these are measures that will probably require that people adjust their daily habits, but these are ways that will block the infrared signal and prevent these criminals, these savvy criminals, from capturing the data and simply walking up with a second, handmade remote—
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