DAY AT THE AUTO SHOW — Anyone who attended the Liberal government’s auto-theft summit should have walked away with a sense auto theft and violent carjackings will be a wedge in the next election. — Geography play: Vote-rich, densely populated southern Ontario and urban Quebec have a high volume of high-end vehicles, with easy access to transport corridors leading to ports, particularly Montreal, for export overseas. — Public safety is the new affordability: Brampton Mayor PATRICK BROWN says public safety is the No. 1 issue he’s hearing about in the Peel Region as auto thefts surge. Per-capita vehicle thefts are an eye-popping 600 a month in Peel Region, according to regional police chief NISHAN DURAIAPPAH. Brown personally hasn’t had his car stolen, but two members of his municipal council have — for one councillor, it was twice. — Squeaky wheel…: After sounding the alarm to “previous public safety ministers” for years who had “no interest in talking about how the federal government could be part of the solution,” Brown said seeing Ottawa at the table is a “very encouraging sign.” Solutions he’s after: Screening technology to check containers for vehicles and tougher sentencing. — Lobby pitch: “Machines that can do the screening are about C$3 million each. If we had four in Montreal, one in an intermodal hub in Brampton, that would suffocate the [criminal] industry,” he said. Public Safety Minister DOMINIC LEBLANC committed C$28 million for enforcement and inspection just ahead of the summit, but details have yet to come out on how that gets distributed. Brown also said sentences are not “consistent with similar crimes in the gun space or the drug space, so it’s high reward and low risk right now for organized crime and that’s why it’s proliferating every year.” — Toughen up: He’s not the only one calling for tightening penalties. PIERRE POILIEVRE set the political tone for that this week going full blast days earlier, vowing to crack down with harsher sentences for repeat offenders. Echoes of affordability ring through the issue as well amid the prospect of the crime wave pushing insurance costs higher at a tough time. At the summit, OPP Commissioner THOMAS CARRIQUE, auto manufacturers and insurance industry pointed to the need for stronger deterrents. RCMP Commissioner MIKE DUHEME also shared some specific thoughts with media: “We should perhaps have a listing in the Criminal Code just like we have a terrorist listing” for well-known “established organized crime groups.” — Changes in the works: Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU signaled Ottawa will usher in tougher penalties to deal with auto theft during the summit, which the government had been intensively planning for weeks, but stopped short of offering specific policies. He also took a lightly veiled swipe at Conservative leader PIERRE POILIEVRE, who has accused the Liberal leader of being soft on crime: “A catchy slogan won’t stop auto theft. A two-minute YouTube video won’t stop organized crime.” Justice Minister ARIF VIRANI — who had his government-owned car stolen in November — confirmed additional measures, saying he’s hearing from stakeholders that “speed and action” are needed to make “concrete changes.” “That means changes to motor vehicle standards. That means changes to the responsibilities on the auto manufacturers. That means changes to how we're funding the ports and CBSA. That means, very likely, changes to the Criminal Code of Canada.” — Points of tension: The summit was full of statistics and anecdotes, but key players talked vaguely around real points of contention. Among the asks, police leaders are seeking the ability to remotely disable stolen vehicles so they shut down. Transport Minister PABLO RODRIGUEZ said he spoke with CEOs of most major auto manufacturers recently about new security technology and warned “they will have to do better.” — On the defense: Automakers preemptively warned tech isn’t always the solution, explaining they are in a cat-and-mouse game with criminals in developing better security. BRIAN KINGSTON of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, which reps Ford, GM Stellantis, said during the summit that carmakers are being asked to do more by regulators all the time and it’s not always helpful, pointing to right-to-repair legislation that “works directly against the efforts of auto manufacturers to keep vehicle systems secure.” — Who wasn’t there: “It's simply not acceptable that the unions were not welcomed,” NDP MP PETER JULIAN said. “These frontline workers have a lot to say.” — Consensus: Like the housing crisis, it’s a big, complex problem with no silver bullet, stakeholders said over and over again, and it’s going to take time to fix. Even if the crucial issue of cars slipping through the Port of Montreal to be shipped off to Africa and the Middle East is solved, or if the focus ends up on just any one area, this could easily turn into a game of whack-a-mole.
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