Parliamentary Committee Notes: CBSA National Approach
National Auto Theft Action Plan – CBSA Pillars

Issue

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is collaborating with Public Safety Canada to advance the Action Plan on Combatting Auto Theft. The CBSA is leading or is a key contributor to three of the five pillars (Intelligence or Information Sharing; Intervention; and Legislation, Regulations, and Governance).

Proposed Response

• The February 8, 2024 National Summit on Combatting Auto Theft brought together senior officials from all levels of government, law enforcement and industry for a pan-Canadian discussion on combatting auto theft. Canadians heard directly from decision-makers on challenges and potential solutions to disrupting this crime but this discussion needs to be transformed into concrete action to support effective change.
• The CBSA has intensified its efforts to work closely with law enforcement partners to interdict stolen vehicles along the export continuum through expanded intelligence sharing and coordinated enforcement operations.
• The CBSA is leveraging existing information sharing authorities within the Customs Act to support law enforcement partners in their criminal investigation of Canada’s auto theft organized crime groups.
• To ensure that the CBSA retains the operational capacity to interdict more stolen vehicles before leaving Canada, ongoing and persistent engagement with Provincial and Municipal partners is required to ensure that stolen vehicles are removed from the CBSA’s facilities in a timely manner.

Background

The Action Plan on Combatting Auto Theft outlines concrete short, medium and long-term actions, planned or already underway, that were confirmed by participants, following the Summit. This plan takes a multi-dimensional approach to disrupting auto theft, organized along five pillars: Intelligence or Information Sharing; Prevention; Intervention; Legislation, Regulations, and Governance; and Recovery and Repatriation.

Specific CBSA Pillar Items

• Intelligence and Information Sharing
  • The CBSA will continue to support police of jurisdiction (POJ) criminal investigations through existing information sharing authorities by sharing customs information.  
  • The CBSA will prioritize efforts to provide timely responses to requests for information (RFI) received from POJs.
  • Review existing legislation and regulations to determine any barriers to information sharing, their impact on law enforcements’ ability to identify and interdict stolen vehicles, and how they are best addressed as expediently as possible.
  • Strengthen existing intelligence and information sharing mechanisms to bring sharing into one place, build a full picture of these crimes, help law enforcement target perpetrators and increase the interception of stolen vehicles.
• Intervention
  • Enhance collaboration with Rail and Marine partners with view to enhance spaces to open containers, and share information for targeting suspicious shippers.
  • Increase joint export examination operations in ports and rail yards to stop stolen vehicles from leaving the country with a view to maintaining the current CBSA response rate of 100% and work with facility owners, such as ports and railways, to expand areas for examination.
  • A Protocol for Interjurisdictional Law Enforcement Requests to Locate Stolen Vehicles Equipped with Tracking Devices will soon be disseminated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This will support and expedite the safe retrieval of stolen vehicles to their owners.  
• Legislation, Regulations and Governance
  • The CBSA will continue to leverage existing information sharing authorities within the Customs Act to assist and support partners.
  • Assess legal authorities to determine areas for improvement with respect to ensuring that export legislation and regulations provide to the Government of Canada (including the CBSA) the right tools to identify stolen vehicles bound for export.

Date modified:

2024-09-26