As auto theft is rampant in Canada, insurance payments are increasing astronomically, and the damage is reaching the level of a ‘national crisis’. According to the daily Globe and Mail on the 6th, the ‘Fair Association’, a non-profit organization specializing in insurance crime investigations, said in a report on car thefts that the insurance industry lost more than 1 billion dollars due to insurance claims due to a sharp increase in car thefts nationwide last year. The loss in the previous year was $700 million.
“There is no question that car theft in Canada has reached national crisis levels,” said Terry O’Brien, the association’s president. “Canada’s auto theft is committed by criminal organizations both domestic and foreign,” he said.
Auto theft is highest in Ontario and Quebec, each rising nearly 50% last year.
In Ontario, auto theft increased by 48.3 per cent in 2018 compared to the previous year, so insurance claims in the first half of 2019 surpassed all of 2020, the report said. It was found that the targets of the crime were mainly new sports utility (SUV) models produced after 2017.
Toronto and Montreal are hotbeds of car theft gangs because they are densely populated metropolitan areas, the report noted. It was analysed that the two areas are easy to use for crime because they are adjacent to the port of Montreal, a representative automobile export port.
An official from the association explained, “If the car theft surges, the burden on consumers suffering from rising prices and housing shortages will inevitably increase.