Ottawa's latest auto theft update rounds up months of progress: Bill C-14 now in force, fresh funding flowing, and theft numbers still falling.
Public Safety Canada's September 21 update on the National Action Plan on Combatting Auto Theft credits two years of coordinated work - new laws, more border inspections and fresh investment - with pushing police-reported theft down 16 percent in 2024 and another 16 percent in 2025. Équité Association's own trend data adds a third straight decline: national auto thefts down 10 percent in the first half of 2026 versus the same period in 2025.
Among the measures already in force under the plan is Bill C-14, the Bail and Sentencing Reform Act, which received royal assent June 15 and took effect July 15 - well before this latest update. Anyone charged with a violent or organized-crime-linked auto theft now has to convince a judge they deserve bail, rather than the Crown having to prove they should stay locked up. Courts must also weigh conditions like curfews, travel limits and bans on carrying theft tools, and a sentence tied to violent auto theft now has to be served on top of any break-and-enter sentence, not alongside it.
Money is moving too. The government pointed to $165.4 million over three years for the Building Safer Communities Fund and a proposed $75 million over five years for a new Canada Community Security Program. A further $1.6 million is funding three Canadian-built anti-theft devices, including one that disables a stolen vehicle remotely and an AI-powered steering-wheel lock.
At the border, the Canada Border Services Agency says it intercepted 1,590 stolen vehicles in 2025 and another 830 so far in 2026, and continues to act on every referral it gets from police. A mobile X-ray scanner running at Greater Toronto Area rail yards - owned by the RCMP, backed by the CBSA - has already screened more than 2,800 containers this year.
One of the plan's clearer wins so far is Project NoCargo, a pilot the RCMP launched in June 2025 with the CBSA, INTERPOL Ottawa, FINTRAC and Canadian financial institutions to catch fraudulently obtained vehicles before they leave the country. It has recovered 392 vehicles worth an estimated $28 million.
Vehicle standards are catching up too. Transport Canada wants to modernize the Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standards so new immobilizer technology matches current international theft-prevention benchmarks. Those changes were published for consultation in December 2025 and are expected to be finalized this fall, and the government is separately amending the Customs Act to give CBSA officers more power to inspect goods leaving the country.
“The continued decline in auto theft demonstrates what can be achieved through coordinated action and strong partnerships between governments, law enforcement agencies and industry partners,” said Gary Anandasangaree, Minister of Public Safety, in the release.
The update stops short of putting a dollar figure on what any of this means for auto insurance premiums. But between a tougher bail law, deeper funding and sharper border screening, insurers now have a fuller regulatory picture — and two straight years of falling theft numbers to watch.
The full text of the September 21 update is available at https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2026/09/government-of-canada-reports-on-continued-progress-in-fight-against-auto-theft.html.
