OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD)

House of Commons Debates Volume 151 No. 276 1st SESSION 44th PARLIAMENT Tuesday, February 6, 2024 Speaker: The Honourable Greg Fergus HOUSE OF COMMONS CANADA (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) COMMONS DEBATES February 6, 2024 DEBATES No. 276 No. 276 N o 276 Volume 151 276 06 02 2024 2024/02/06 10:00:00 Débats de la Chambre des communes House of Commons Debates House Of Commons 1 44

The House met at 10 a.m. Prayer

ROUTINE PROCEEDINGS Routine Proceedings

(1000) [ English ] Petitions Ukraine

Mr. Lloyd Longfield (Guelph, Lib.) :

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, a petition that comes from the members of the Holy Protection of the Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church in Guelph. It states that,

whereas Bill C-57 is an important update to the Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement that would assist Ukrainians in rebuilding after they defeat the illegal invasion of Vladimir Putin; that the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress has called on the Parliament of Canada to swiftly adopt this legislation; and that misinformation regarding Canada's carbon pricing scheme having an effect on this agreement has widely been debunked, the members undersigned have asked for the House of Commons and all parliamentarians to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to Ukraine by swiftly adopting the updated Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement.

Charitable Organizations

Mr. Damien Kurek (Battle River—Crowfoot, CPC) :

Mr. Speaker, as always, it is an honour to stand in this place and to present petitions brought forward by Canadians. Today, I have a petition that brings forward a number of issues, but specifically it is signed by Canadians who are opposed to the bringing back, like the Liberals promised in their 2021 election platform, of a values test for charitable organizations. To summarize, the undersigned citizens and residents of Canada call upon the House of Commons to protect and preserve the application of charitable status rules on a politically and ideologically neutral basis. It is an honour to present this petition in the House here today.

Wellness and Recreation Facilities

Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP) :

Mr. Speaker, it is a huge honour to rise today to table petition e-4568, which was signed by over 677 constituents from Vancouver Island. They cite that recreation and wellness centres provide opportunities for communities to gather, to connect and to stay healthy through physical activity.

The research shows that recreation and wellness centres promote personal health and well-being among users, that recreation facilities play a critical role in the rehabilitation of workers recovering from injuries in the workplace and that communities without adequate recreational facilities find it challenging to retain seniors, youth and families in the community, which limits the retention of highly qualified professionals and volunteerism and is a loss to communities. The benefits of recreation and wellness centres to individuals and communities have been well-researched and documented.

Petitioners cite that their communities need more facilities, such as the West Coast Multiplex, which has been in planning for over 20 years, to offer diverse programs, which would be accessible by all populations and that the investing in Canada infrastructure program's previous partnership with federal and British Columbia governments provided funds need to be replenished with significant sustained increase in the capital to meet recreational needs of their communities. There is a need for expanding, creating or replacing recreational facilities on the west coast, in Port Alberni and Oceanside.

The petitioners are calling on the federal government to invest heavily in infrastructure and recreational facilities to help keep people in communities and to keep them healthy.

(1005) Electoral Reform

Mr. Brendan Hanley (Yukon, Lib.) :

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on behalf of a substantial number of Yukoners. The petitioners and signatories call on the House of Commons to support Motion No. 86, calling for a citizens' assembly on electoral reform. The petition also states that the Yukon signatories would also like to draw the House's attention to the following: The need for electoral reform continues to be a fundamental issue for citizens of all political persuasions. Therefore, they call for a new approach to developing a citizens' consensus on electoral reform where citizens would be given a voice on the subject of electoral reform and a right to make recommendations.

Needle Exchange Program

Mr. Brad Vis (Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, CPC) :

Mr. Speaker, at the direction of the Liberal government, the Correctional Service of Canada is offering the prison needle exchange program, or PNEP, in federal correctional institutions, effectively encouraging illicit drug use in prisons. Illicit drugs in federal institutions are contraband. Equally, any item used for injecting drugs is also contraband. The presence of needles for illicit drug use in correctional institutions presents a severe safety risk to both inmates and correctional officers.

The already hazardous workplace of the correctional officer is made more dangerous by the presence of the PNEP, and the Canadian drugs and substances strategy should focus on helping Canadians recover from addiction and on receiving treatment, not on supporting these addictions.

Therefore, petitioners in Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon and surrounding ridings, who are Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to cancel the prison needle exchange program operations, to stop permitting the use of illicit drugs in Canadian prisons and to focus the efforts on helping inmates recover from their addictions through new treatment policies.

Health Care Professionals

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North, Lib.) :

Mr. Speaker, today I table a petition in regards to health care. Health care professionals, in particular, our nurses, are often undervalued, whether it is by the provinces or other stakeholders not recognizing the potential and the harm we do by not properly supporting them. That would include everything from not recognizing credentials to retention-related issues, as well as the anxiety and stress put into the profession. The petitioners are calling on all members of Parliament to ultimately recognize the reality of our health care professionals and to do what we can to support and to work with the other jurisdictions to make life better for our health care workers.

Electoral Reform

Mr. Adam Chambers (Simcoe North, CPC) :

Madam Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise today to give a voice to a significant number of constituents in Simcoe North who care about the issue of electoral reform. The petitioners believe that the need for electoral reform continues to be a priority and that we need a non-partisan approach to this, including a citizens' assembly. They are therefore calling on the House to give a voice to the subject of electoral reform by supporting Motion No. 86.

Questions on the Order Paper

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.) :

Madam Speaker, I would ask that all questions be allowed to stand at this time.

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes) :

Is that agreed?

Some hon. members: Agreed.

Government Orders Business of Supply

(1010) [ English ] Business of Supply Opposition Motion—Auto Theft

Hon. Tim Uppal (Edmonton Mill Woods, CPC)

moved: Motion

That, given that,

(

i) after eight years of soft on crime policies, this Prime Minister has created the auto theft crisis,

(ii) according to the Liberal government’s own news release, auto theft in Toronto is up 300% since 2015, and Statistics Canada data shows auto-theft is up 190% in Moncton, 122% in Ottawa-Gatineau, 106% in Montréal, 62% in Winnipeg, since 2015,

(iii) the Port of Montreal, a major hub for stolen vehicles to be shipped out of Canada, only has five Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) agents to inspect the 580,000 containers that leave the port each year, according to the Le Journal de Montréal, with one law enforcement agent saying, “CBSA has no resources to check the containers, they check less than one per cent of containers”,

(iv) it is the responsibility of the federal government to reduce auto theft as the primary prevention tools, including the Criminal Code, the RCMP, the CBSA and our port systems, which are the federal government’s jurisdiction,

(

v) the increase in auto theft is costing Canadian drivers as insurance premiums are increasing, and in Ontario, insurance companies are able to increase premiums by 25% this year,

(vi) a report by Équité estimates $1 billion in vehicle theft claims were paid out in 2022, and these costs are being passed down to drivers,

in order to stop the crime and reduce auto theft to lower insurance premiums, the House call on the government to:

(

a) immediately reverse changes the Liberal government made in their soft on crime Bill C-5 that allows for car stealing criminals to be on house arrest instead of jail;

(

b) strengthen Criminal Code provisions to ensure repeat car stealing criminals remain in jail; and

(

c) provide the CBSA and our ports with the resources they need to prevent stolen cars from leaving the country.

He said: Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Mégantic—L'Érable . After eight years of the Prime Minister , Canada is becoming less and less safe. Violent crime, car theft and gun crime have unleashed chaos and disorder in our communities. Crime, chaos, drugs and disorder are common in our streets now, and the Liberal government is responsible for making this situation even worse. Since the Liberal government was elected in 2015, there has been a 34% surge in car thefts across Canada.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada says that auto theft has become a national crisis, with more than 200 vehicles stolen, on average, every day. The explosion of car thefts is making life even more unaffordable for Canadians. In 2022, car thefts cost the insurance industry over $1 billion, resulting in higher insurance costs for every Canadian on their insurance premiums. In Toronto alone, auto theft crime is up by 300% and in other Canadian cities, it is over 100%.

While the NDP-Liberals say that they care about the safety of Canadians, they have had no real solutions to the rising auto theft crime across the country. In fact, their only real solution we have heard so far is to host another fancy meeting in Ottawa. They are calling it the auto summit. That means more meetings and no solutions. The Prime Minister let this auto theft crisis happen under his watch. His reckless policies have allowed car thefts to explode in our communities and right across the country. His only action to fix this is to hold another summit.

Last week, in his own press release, the Prime Minister admitted it was not like this before the Liberal government took office in 2015. We can all agree on that one. Canadians do not feel safe in their communities and on the streets, but the Liberal justice minister and Attorney General told Canadians that this is just in Canadians' heads and that the increasing crime is empirically likely. Here are the facts. Violent crime is up 39%. Gang-related homicides are up over 100%. Violent gun crime has steadily increased every year and now, it is over 100% since 2015. Murders are up 43%, the highest in 30 years.

The crime wave that the Liberal government has caused is not imaginary. It is real, and Canadians are experiencing it in every way. We continue to see news stories of violent crimes committed by repeat offenders who are out on bail. According to a report published last week by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, violent crime is only getting worse and “Canada's violent crime severity index”, which tracks changes in the severity of violent crime, is “at its highest [level] since 2007.” During the last Conservative government, the violent crime severity index, decreased by 24.66%.

Under the Liberal government, it has increased by basically 30%. A recent Statistics Canada report shows that the rate of firearm-related violent crime in 2022 was at the highest level ever recorded, a nearly 10% increase from 2021 alone. According to Edmonton police, the number of shootings in 2023 went up by 34%. After eight years of the Prime Minister , Canadian businesses across the country are now being extorted by international gangsters.

In January, the Toronto Sun reported that the mayors of Brampton, Ontario and Surrey, British Columbia sent a letter to the Minister of Public Safety saying that they are “deeply concerned for their communities due to [these] threats” and that “recent reports from their provinces have confirmed links between...extortion attempts and violent acts, including shootings” and arson.

The Edmonton Police Service now reports it is “investigating 27 events related to an ongoing extortion series that has affected [a number of members of] the...community in the Edmonton region since October, including...extortions, 15 arson cases and seven firearms offences.” Businesses and family homes are being shot at in Edmonton. Over a dozen houses that were under construction by different home builders were burned to the ground just since November.

While the police are doing their job and are catching these criminals, the Prime Minister 's soft-on-crime legislation, such as Bill C-75 , allows them to be released within hours of their arrest.

(1015) These reckless soft-on-crime policies benefit only the thieves, the criminals. In fact, only criminals are getting rich under the Liberal government. The Liberals' Bill C-5 eliminates mandatory prison time for serious crimes such as this. It allows them to serve their sentence in the comfort of their own home. The government has shown more concern for the criminals than for defending our communities. It has eliminated mandatory prison time for criminals who commit robbery with a firearm, weapons trafficking and drive-by shootings.

The reckless policies have made police powerless in stopping career car thieves and other criminals. In today's Canada, a convicted criminal can just walk out the front door and be on the streets again, stealing cars and terrorizing neighbourhoods soon after they have been arrested. It is no wonder that more and more Canadians are losing faith in our justice system. In fact, only 46% of Canadians still have confidence that their government will protect them.

To make matters worse, the Liberal justice minister is failing to appoint enough judges to handle the cases, resulting in an increased number of cases that are being stayed or withdrawn. The Liberals are just not worth the cost. The Liberals' mismanagement has allowed organized crime to turn our federal ports into parking lots for stolen vehicles that are then shipped overseas. The port of Montreal has become a major hub for stolen vehicles to be shipped out of Canada. Despite that, it has only five CBSA agents, who inspect 580,000 containers that leave the port each year. In a recent

article out of Montreal, a law enforcement agent said that CBSA has no resources to check containers and that they check fewer than 1% of them. This is completely unacceptable given the current car theft crisis happening in Canada. I want to remind the Prime Minister and the government that the RCMP, the Criminal Code, the Canada Border Services Agency are all federal responsibilities. It is their responsibility to reduce auto theft as the primary prevention tool. Conservatives have a common-sense plan to bring back safe streets and protect our communities.

We must hit the brakes on car theft with common-sense Conservative tough-on-crime policies. Our Conservative plan would make prison time mandatory for repeat car thieves. Repeat offenders should not be allowed to serve their sentence in their living room, watching Netflix. We would put a stop to house arrest for convicted car thieves, toughen sentences for gang-related car thieves and eliminate the Liberal soft-on-crime bail policies for repeat violent offenders. Conservatives will go after the real criminals by restoring jail, not bail.

The NDP-Liberals have allowed career car thieves back on our streets to continue spreading chaos and disorder. Common-sense Conservatives will ensure that repeat criminals are where they belong: behind bars. A Conservative government will not go easy on organized crime thieves. It would designate a new, specific aggravating factor where the offence of motor vehicle theft is committed for the benefit of organized crime. We would increase mandatory prison time from six months to three years for a third auto theft offence.

Conservatives will not stand silently by as our communities are terrorized by criminals who should be in jail, not on bail. A common-sense Conservative government will ensure that repeat violent offenders remain behind bars while awaiting trial and will bring back mandatory jail time for serious violent crimes, which was repealed by the Liberal government. Common-sense Conservatives will put a stop to auto theft, protect Canadians' property and bring home safer streets. That is just common sense.

(1020) Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.) :

Madam Speaker, I will quote a Manitoba statistic from 2007 since the member referred to that year: “the province's 2007 rate remained the highest in the country...for the 11th straight year and was 24% higher than a decade ago”. I remember talking about the issue when I was an MLA. I will remind the member that Stephen Harper was prime minister then. Unfortunately for the people of Winnipeg, there are far too many victims.

The member needs to recognize that in order to deal with an issue such as this, as we did then, there is an obligation to work with other jurisdictions such as provinces, and with law enforcement agencies, and to provide support where we can. Can the member indicate why Stephen Harper was such a disaster during 2007-08 on the issue of automobile thefts in the province of Manitoba?

Hon. Tim Uppal :

Madam Speaker, the member wants to talk about stats. Here are some stats: Violent crime is up by 39% since the Liberals have been in government for the last eight years. Gang-related homicides are up 108% since they have been in government, and violent gun crime has increased. Murders are up, and yes, car thefts are also up. It is not just about the cars; it is also about the fact that the insurance industry is saying auto theft is costing over a billion dollars a year, which makes everybody's premiums more expensive. The current government is just not worth the cost.

[ Translation ]

Ms. Kristina Michaud (Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, BQ) :

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to see that the Conservatives have finally realized that there is an auto theft crisis in Canada. I for one have been talking about it since October 2023. I moved a motion at the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security to study—

[ English ]

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes) :

If the hon. member for Cumberland—Colchester has anything to add, he can wait until it is time for questions and comments. In the meantime, he may want to respect the individual who currently has the floor. [ Translation ] The hon. member for Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia.

Ms. Kristina Michaud :

Madam Speaker, I will start again. Unfortunately, I do not think anyone heard me. If the member would put his earpiece in, I think that would work even better. I am pleased to see that the Conservatives have finally realized that there is an auto theft crisis in Canada. I for one have been talking about it since October. I moved a motion at the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security to study this issue. The Conservatives agreed to it. They thought it was a good idea, but all they have done since then is hold up the committee's work. That is what they did with Bill C-20 and Bill C-26 .

Why are they doing that? The reason is that they do not think that the auto theft crisis is all that important after all. Why do they want to talk about it today? Is it because it makes for a good campaign slogan? Is it because they want to crack down on crime? Why has this become a priority for the Conservative Party today?

[ English ]

Hon. Tim Uppal :

Madam Speaker, Conservatives have been steadfast in supporting communities and calling for safer communities. We brought forward legislation in the past, when we were in government, to have mandatory minimums. These were actually repealed by the Liberal government, which has made it easier for criminals to get bail and to serve their sentence at home. We have opposed those measures all along the way, and we will continue to do that because Canadians want and need safer streets.

(1025) Mr. Peter Julian (New Westminster—Burnaby, NDP) :

Madam Speaker, I like the member, but he neglected to say a whole bunch of things around the issue of car theft that concern a lot of Canadians. First, when the Harper government was in power, it actually slashed $600 million from RCMP funding. It also cut over 1,000 border officers and gutted the crime prevention programs that were so effective in stopping car theft. The House will recall that under the Harper government, the highest rates of car theft in our country's history were found. Five of the worst years for car theft over the last 15 years were under the Harper government.

In December, with vote 3, we saw Conservatives vote again to cut CBSA funding. In vote 76, they voted to cut FINTRAC funding, and in votes 103, 104 and 105, proposed by Conservatives, they voted to cut over $100 billion in RCMP funding. Why are Conservatives so contradictory on issues like crime?

Hon. Tim Uppal :

Madam Speaker, we have already proposed ideas for legislation that would bring in mandatory minimums for those who have committed car theft for a third time. Currently under the Liberals, the minimum sentence is only six months. Our proposal would bring it up to three years. We are going to get tough on criminals and make streets safer for Canadians.

[ Translation ]

Mr. Luc Berthold (Mégantic—L'Érable, CPC) :

Madam Speaker, after eight years of Justin Trudeau, one word keeps coming up over and over: trust. After eight years of Liberal governance, people no longer trust this government or this Prime Minister. The latest example could not be clearer. The Globe and Mail is reporting that the Nazi who was invited here and honoured in the House was also invited—

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes) :

The hon. member for Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia on a point of order.

Ms. Kristina Michaud :

Madam Speaker, you may not have noticed, but at the beginning of his speech, the member called another colleague in the House by name. I believe we are supposed to call our colleagues by their titles. Perhaps he should be reminded of that.

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes) :

Thank you. I did not hear it. I want to remind members not to use the names of members who sit in the House when making a speech. I also want to ask the Sergeant-at-Arms something. I notice it is getting a little noisy in the lobby. Someone really should go and see what is happening and ask people to lower their voices. The hon. member for Mégantic—L'Érable.

Mr. Luc Berthold :

Madam Speaker, after eight years of this Prime Minister whose name we cannot say anymore, the trust is gone. Unfortunately, the trust is broken. We saw this in the most recent incident. The Globe and Mail is reporting that the Prime Minister provided disinformation, at the very least, to the House concerning his office's knowledge of the presence of a Nazi who was honoured here. Each of my colleagues was asked to applaud this Nazi on the recommendation of the former Speaker of the House of Commons. For weeks, the Prime Minister denied any knowledge of this situation. He denied his office had been involved.

However, we learned this week that not only did the Prime Minister's Office know, but that the PMO itself invited this Nazi to a reception. This was a personal invitation from the PMO. For this reason, when the time comes to talk about crime, to stop the crime and find solutions, every word from this Prime Minister must now be taken with a grain of salt, unfortunately. It is unfortunate because, after eight years of this Prime Minister, Canadians no longer trust him or his announcements, like the summit on auto theft he announced.

For the eight years this Prime Minister has been in power, he had the tools at his disposal. For eight years, he has had the power to act, yet the only solution he can think of is to call everyone together so he can share the blame with them instead of taking responsibility for his actions, just as he refused to do when he himself invited a former Nazi to a reception hosted by the Prime Minister and attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A Conservative government will axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and, above all, stop the crime. That brings us to today's motion.

Auto theft is a serious issue across the country, mainly in big cities, but also in rural areas. I will talk about this in my speech. In Quebec alone, 10,595 auto thefts were reported in 2022. This figure comes from the Groupement des assureurs automobiles, an auto insurance group that represents virtually all Quebec insurance companies. That is a 37% increase between 2021 and 2022 and a 138% increase since 2016, or since this Liberal government came to power. It amounts to an average of 29 vehicles stolen per day. In 2022, auto theft cost insurers $372 million, up $130 million in one year alone.

People are going to wonder why their car insurance costs are going up. It is simple: Insurance companies have to pay for all these stolen vehicles. Why are more of them not being recovered? Why can the police not stop auto theft? I will share a couple of quick stories. I have friends in the Quebec City area whose vehicle was stolen. They have cameras set up at home. There was a nice vehicle on the property. This happened in broad daylight. The footage clearly shows the thief going up to the vehicle with a forged key, getting in and just driving off. Minutes later, my friend called the police.

The police told him that his vehicle was probably already on its way to the port of Montreal and that, if it was already there, unfortunately, they would not be able to get into the port of Montreal to seize it. The police suggested he call his insurer. No search is launched and no investigation is opened to find the guilty party. The police tell the owner to call their insurance company, and the thieves get off scot-free. The same thing happened in the Sherbrooke region, and I think similar accounts are cropping up across the country.

The port of Montreal has become a hub for exporting stolen vehicles to other countries, wherever they can be sold. I saw a news report on that very topic this week. It was so odd. It reported that vehicles are turning up in a country not far from Saudi Arabia, I forget which one, and they still have Quebec flag stickers on their windows or other Quebec-related markings.

(1030) No one even bothers to clean them. Why should they? All this happens in broad daylight. This Prime Minister 's federal government is doing absolutely nothing to stop auto theft. Vehicles are being stolen with impunity, considering that the federal government, which could and should have acted, is responsible for 95% of all the laws and procedures needed to stop these thefts. The Prime Minister has chosen to do nothing, other than holding a summit to talk about the problem instead of taking action. Why is this happening? It is happening because of the government's choices.

The government amended certain laws. One particular example is Bill C‑5 , which permits house arrest instead of jail time for car thieves. Because of these bills, repeat offenders do not go to jail. They can serve their sentences at home, watching Netflix, which is why we call them “Netflix sentences”. What is happening, as a result? There are no longer any consequences for thieves. Apparently, based on the information being provided and shared by police officers, thieves are simply no longer afraid of facing justice.

It is so lucrative to sell these luxury vehicles abroad and the risk of getting caught is so low compared to the potential gains that they would rather carry on. Organized crime is involved. Meanwhile, people are watching as their vehicles are shipped off to countries all over the world, and the government does nothing. After eight years of inaction by this Prime Minister, it is time to act. That is why a Conservative government will take action.

It will immediately reverse the changes made by the Liberal government in its soft-on-crime Bill C‑5, which allows car thieves to be placed under house arrest rather than going to jail. That bill was supported by the Bloc Québécois. A Conservative government will strengthen Criminal Code provisions to ensure that repeat car thieves are kept behind bars. We will provide the CBSA and port officials with the resources they need to stop stolen cars from leaving the country. Specifically, we will increase mandatory sentences from six months to three years for a third car theft offence.

Three car thefts will mean three years in prison. There will be far fewer thieves on the street if we do things right. We will get rid of the Netflix sentences and create a new specific aggravating factor when the offence is committed for the benefit of organized crime. Furthermore, just this morning, the leader of the Conservative Party was at the port of Montreal to announce other very important measures that the government could have implemented. Instead of holding a summit, it could have taken action.

However, once again it chose to give car thieves free rein and keep car owners in Montreal and in the regions living in fear of having their cars stolen at any time. Today we announced we are going to fire the useless management consultants at the CBSA and use that money to fix our federal ports. We are going to invest in state-of-the-art X-ray scanners that can be used to quickly scan containers at the four federal ports of Montreal, Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Halifax. We are going to hire a special team of customs officers to use the scanners and intercept stolen cars so they do not leave the country.

We are going to hire 75 CBSA officers to secure our federal ports. We will do all that while adhering to our policy of saving one dollar for every dollar spent, particularly by saving money on the infamous ArriveCAN app, which cost $54 million. If they had invested that $54 million in customs rather than in an app that does not work, we would not be in this situation today. That sums up this Prime Minister's record over the past eight years.

(1035) [ English ]

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.) :

Madam Speaker, could my colleague explain why, when I was in the Manitoba legislature and Stephen Harper was the prime minister, the province of Manitoba hit record highs in terms of automobile theft? We are talking significant numbers. In fact, they were the highest in Canada for something like 10 consecutive years. They continued to be high well after 2007. It was not until the province actually started to take tangible actions in working with Ottawa that we saw the numbers go down.

Would the member not agree that, like for Stephen Harper, there is an obligation to work with provincial jurisdictions and other stakeholders to ensure that we minimize the number of victims and deal with the issue? Would he not acknowledge that?

[ Translation ]

Mr. Luc Berthold :

Madam Speaker, is there anyone in this government who will ever take responsibility for their actions and decisions? The Liberals have been in power for eight years. In those eight years, the rate of violent gun crime has surged. In Canada, in 2022 alone, the rate jumped by 9%. Approximately 14,000 violent crimes were committed with the aid of a firearm in this country in 2022, which breaks down to 36.7 crimes of this type per 100,000 inhabitants. That is 8.9% higher than in 2021. In Gatineau, just on the other side of the river, the number of violent crimes rose by 76% in one year. That is unacceptable.

Meanwhile, all the Liberals are doing is once again trying to find other people to blame for their inaction. We, the Conservatives, have a plan. We will take action to fight auto theft and stop the crime.

Mrs. Marilène Gill (Manicouagan, BQ) :

Madam Speaker, obviously, the Bloc Québécois agrees there is a serious auto theft problem. However, this is not the only problem right now. There is an argument behind the Conservative motion, but it lacks a certain intellectual rigour. For example, it says the law arising from Bill C-5 is largely responsible for the surge in auto thefts, yet Bill C‑5 only received royal assent on November 17, 2022. I would like my colleague to explain how Bill C‑5 can be the reason auto thefts have surged since 2015 when Bill C‑5 was not even in force at the time.

(1040) Mr. Luc Berthold :

Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois just has a tendency to support the Liberal Prime Minister . The Bloc Québécois voted for the Liberal law arising from Bill C-75 , which allows car thieves to be released on bail the same day they are arrested. The thieves are arrested, but the next day, they are free to start stealing again. The Bloc Québécois also voted for Bill C-5 , which allows car thieves to serve their sentence at home, watching Netflix in the comfort of their living room. The Bloc Québécois does not want a solution that will stop criminals and stop auto theft. They proved it when they voted with the government for Bill C‑75 and Bill C‑5.

[ English ]

Mr. Brian Masse (Windsor West, NDP) :

Madam Speaker, one thing at issue here is the fact that Conservatives have historically cut CBSA infrastructure. Detector dogs were reduced under their administration. The teams that worked with the United States, in terms of being proactive, were reduced by Conservatives. They implemented a new training program that did not hire workers until they had spent 18 weeks away from their families, getting $125 a week just to be trained for a potential job. Therefore, we are short thousands of workers. They mention five workers in the port of Montreal in their motion.

Why do they not specifically outline what they will do for the CBSA officers they refer to as “agents”, who do not get the respect they deserve and do not have the infrastructure to stop the vehicles from being stolen?

[ Translation ]

Mr. Luc Berthold :

Madam Speaker, I can see the NDP is confused, because, during the Harper years, it was indeed less costly and there was less crime. Crime did not pay during the time of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. I can see the NDP has trouble understanding this, but we Conservatives have decided to act. We will continue. We will stop the crime and take steps to reduce auto theft in this country. Car owners will be able to sleep easy. The first thing they do in the morning will no longer be to look outside to see if their car is still where they parked it.

[ English ] Points of Order Oral Questions Points of Order

Hon. Andrew Scheer (Regina—Qu'Appelle, CPC) :

Madam Speaker, I rise to bring the attention of the Speaker to a very unfortunate incident that happened in Oral Questions yesterday in response to the Leader of the Opposition 's very measured policy-oriented question, which I will read right now to provide some context:

Mr. Speaker, the advice is to axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime.

The Prime Minister is not worth the cost and not worth the crime. We now are paying a billion dollars more in insurance premiums because he has led to a quadrupling of car thefts in Toronto.

I have a common-sense plan, which I rolled out today, to end house arrest and catch and release for career criminals, and bring in three years of jail for three stolen cars.

Will the government accept the common-sense plan?

It was very focused on actual policy. No personal attack or insult at all was contained in that question. The Minister of Justice , though, used an extremely unparliamentary word in his response. It was not captured in Hansard, but it was captured on the audio. At the end of his response, the Minister of Justice called the Leader of the Opposition “an effing tool”. This comes from a government that loves to lecture everybody else about raising the level of debate, decorum and civility. Once again, we see Liberal hypocrisy on full display.

The Minister of Justice completely lost his cool, lost his temper and hurled that offensive insult in this place, in the House of Commons. The Speaker has issued several rulings in the last few weeks where he has indicated that he is going to try to address these types of comments made in the House. I ask the Speaker to examine the audio. It is clearly audible for all to hear. This offensive, unparliamentary remark needs to be withdrawn, and the minister needs to apologize.

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes) :

I want to thank the hon. official opposition House leader for his intervention. We will certainly look into this and, if need be, come back to the House with the appropriate remedy.

Business of Supply Opposition Motion—Auto Theft Business of Supply Motion

The House resumed consideration of the motion.

Hon. Dominic LeBlanc (Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs, Lib.) :

Madam Speaker, I want to begin by thanking the opposition and my colleague, the member for Edmonton Mill Woods , for presenting a motion with respect to auto theft, because it will give the government yet another opportunity to demonstrate our leadership on this important matter. Obviously, we share the concerns raised by members in the debate so far today about vehicle theft in Canada. In fact, it is nice to see colleagues on all sides of the aisle agreeing on something for once. As the Minister of Public Safety, protecting Canadians and their safety is at the very heart of my work every day.

In pursuit of that goal, we have, as a government, passed historic gun control legislation to keep communities safe from deadly weapons. We have invested in policing and border services to crack down on crime across the country. We have bolstered our borders themselves to go after illegal smuggling, and further investments in both the Border Services Agency and the RCMP will be forthcoming. This effort is about tackling the threat of organized crime to keep people safe and do so in a way that will actually solve problems like auto theft.

It is this government that takes a thoughtful and effective approach to protecting Canadians, their families, our neighbourhoods and our businesses. We pursue solutions that work, ones that are grounded in evidence and collaboration, solutions that do not just sound tough on crime but actually are. We are taking that approach to the issue of auto theft. Unlike the Conservative leader , who thinks he can score political points by playing into the fears of Canadians, we want to work with all colleagues and industry, police forces and the insurance industry on solutions that will be effective.

We are working with police, car manufacturers, the insurance industry and provinces to solve this increasingly worrisome problem. Preventing and cracking down on auto theft starts by helping police enforce the laws to keep people safe. To that end, we are also working with border services, law enforcement communities in municipalities and provinces, the RCMP and stakeholders across the country to ensure that Canadians feel secure in their communities and are not subject to what is an increasingly violent incidence of automobile theft.

Last week, along with my colleague, the Minister of Justice , and my colleagues from the Ontario caucus and Premier Doug Ford of Ontario, we announced another $121 million to prevent gang and gun violence and combat auto theft in the province of Ontario. These investments will support, in a concrete way, efforts to address gun and gang violence and deal with the linkages to serious organized crime.

Later this week, as colleagues know, we are continuing to show leadership by bringing together federal ministers; our provincial counterparts; members of territorial and municipal governments; insurance providers; automobile manufacturers; port, rail and industry stakeholders; and leaders in law enforcement, which is important, including police leaders from some of Canada's biggest cities and provincial police forces, at a national summit on combatting auto theft to address this growing challenge in a collaborative and effective way. (1045) [ Translation ] We know that there is no one solution to such a complex problem.

It is only through co-operation and joint efforts between governments, law enforcement and the industry, of course, that we will get the results that Canadians expect from us. [ English ] Participants at this important summit will discuss the scope and scale of auto theft in Canada and how best to collaborate on concrete solutions and actions that will address, in a real way, this increasing challenge. Solid, clear plans will emerge from the meeting on Thursday, and we will continue to work collaboratively with our partners across the country.

(1050) We will work on a wide range of solutions, from prevention to detection, enforcement and vehicle recovery. As my colleague, the Minister of Justice , said in Toronto last week, we are open to legislative and regulatory changes as well. Auto theft is a complex challenge that increasingly involves links to organized crime, including transnational organized crime. For solutions to be effective, they need to focus on preventing crime before it starts, cracking down on bad actors by ensuring law enforcement has all the resources it needs and developing better means of tracking and recovering stolen vehicles.

These efforts start from a federal perspective with the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA. [ Translation ] These federal agencies are looking at every possible solution, in collaboration with the Department of Justice, the Department of Innovation and Transport Canada and, of course, with the local and provincial police forces, car manufacturers and the insurance sector, to see how we all can work together on quickly reducing car thefts, which are causing so much grief and concern among Canadians.

The fight against auto theft also calls for deterrence and intervention at every step of the process. [ English ] From the factories that manufacture vehicles to insurance and security system upgrades, to the moment the crime occurs, we are pursuing effective solutions to prevent crime but also to hold accountable those who perpetrate these crimes. We are addressing the life cycle itself of that stolen car: fraudulent car ownership transfers; the movement of that stolen vehicle on roads or railways; and ultimately, in many cases, the export of that vehicle abroad from our ports.

Although criminal investigations for auto theft are led by the police of jurisdiction in the community where the theft takes place, we are actively supporting these important partners in their efforts to combat these crimes. The RCMP is working with the Ontario Provincial Police and the Sûreté du Québec in supporting provincial strategies that tackle this challenge, and is also supporting other local and municipal police forces in their efforts. The RCMP plays a number of roles in helping to combat auto theft across the country.

The RCMP works as the police of jurisdiction, and coming from New Brunswick I know this very well, in hundreds of communities as well. This means that it is responsible for investigating reports of crime, including auto theft. Under contract to provincial and municipal authorities, the RCMP members who work in these communities across the country do exceptional work. Second, the RCMP is responsible for federal policing. This is a core responsibility that is carried out in every province and territory across the country, and internationally as well.

Under its federal policing mandate, the RCMP combats threats to Canada from transnational and organized criminal groups. These groups are increasingly benefiting from auto theft, and the RCMP is going after them in a very significant way. As part of these crucial efforts, the RCMP works with international and domestic partners to dismantle criminal groups and disrupt illegal markets, leveraging operational partnerships it has with small municipal police forces, larger regional police forces and, in the case of Ontario and Quebec, the important provincial police forces.

(1055) Last, the RCMP is responsible for information sharing so that law enforcement officers across the country have the tools they need to go after criminals. Through the National Police Services, tools and databases essential for law enforcement agencies are available across the country to deter and investigate criminal activity, including automobile theft. For example, the RCMP hosts the Canadian Police Information Centre.

This is a key national information sharing system, one that is used by police every minute of the day. [ Translation ] The RCMP also heads the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada Central Bureau and supports the efforts to reduce the damage caused by organized crime by providing criminal intelligence products and services, including on auto theft.

The bureau informs its partners, the government and other stakeholders about the criminal markets in Canada and helps those in charge of law enforcement to make decisions regarding the priorities for fighting organized crime. [ English ] At the border, the Canadian Border Services Agency is working closely with domestic and international partners to ensure we are disrupting criminal activity, including the export of stolen vehicles as well.

This includes working in partnership with local police, provincial police, responding to intelligence reports and intelligence sources that the CBSA receives from these police forces, to intercept and interrupt shipments that may contain stolen vehicles. I visited the Port of Montreal a couple of weeks ago to see first-hand the important work being done by the men and women who work for CBSA in this essential work to protect Canadians. [ Translation ] Through a variety of partnerships, we are actively contributing to joint efforts in the areas hardest hit by auto theft.

We will continue to work across party lines to ensure we stay on top of this growing problem in communities across Canada and, of course, to combat the damaging impact it is having on Canadians. [ English ] We look forward to the discussions later this week and to the identification of concrete and effective actions that all governments can take to ensure that everything is being done and brought to bear to deal with what is understandably a source of concern to Canadians across the country, the rising level of automobile theft. [ Translation ] In closing, auto theft is a complex problem with no simple or single solution.

We must all work together to address this challenge. I look forward to hearing from my colleagues in the House of Commons throughout the day, as well as the comments we will all hear later this week. We will continue to do whatever it takes to protect Canadians and prevent these auto thefts that are causing so many headaches. I can assure my colleagues that I am very pleased to have the opportunity to discuss this important issue in the House of Commons today.

Mr. Gérard Deltell (Louis-Saint-Laurent, CPC) :

Madam Speaker, it is always interesting to listen to the minister's speeches. He is a well-known parliamentarian and well established here in the House, as well as in his riding and his province. Speaking of his province, New Brunswick, we know it is one of the places where, unfortunately, this auto theft scourge is the most glaring and devastating. We are talking about an increase of more than 120% in New Brunswick since this government was elected. Moncton has seen an increase in auto theft of over 190%. Let us come a bit closer to home, in the province of Quebec.

The minister said that a few days ago he went to visit the people working at the port of Montreal. That is great. He was impressed by the quality of the work. We too have been there. The problem is that there is quite a shortage of workers. Could the minister tell us whether having five people work at the port of Montreal to analyze the content of the cargo is enough?

Hon. Dominic LeBlanc :

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.

(1100) Ms. Kristina Michaud (Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, BQ) :

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?

Hon. Dominic LeBlanc :

Madam Speaker, I believe that on Thursday my colleague will take

part in the summit with us. I will be very happy to work with her. One of the things we did when we came to power was restore the jobs that were lost as a result of the major cuts inflicted by Mr. Harper’s previous government, for instance at the Canada Border Services Agency, where 1,000 jobs were eliminated. Half the jobs of officers who worked in criminal intelligence at border services were cut by the Conservative Government. That is why it is ironic that today the Conservatives are talking about investing in our law enforcement services.

I spoke to Minister Bonnardel from Quebec, who will also be with us on Thursday, and I will continue to work with him. The chiefs of police in the major cities are of course invited on Thursday. I am eager to hear their suggestions. We are going to invest more in border services and the RCMP so that they can be the best partners possible.

[ English ]

Mr. Brian Masse (Windsor West, NDP) :

Madam Speaker, the history of the culture and how we treat our workers at CBSA is terrible. The government has not improved it very much. In fact, there has been a constant problem with getting proper collective agreements on time. They are done just as the window of the agreement is done and they have to go back to negotiations. We are short thousands of workers; some during COVID and even before. On top of that, the government would not even give vaccinations to our frontline workers, despite them being on the front line every single day. I think it comes from a culture.

I would like to offer the minister an opportunity to apologize. The member Derek Lee from Scarborough—Rouge River got up in this chamber and called our CBSA officers “wimps”. The Liberals have never apologized for that. I would like the minister to apologize for that or have we gotten past that point from the minister? Are they wimps or not?

Hon. Dominic LeBlanc :

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.

(1105) Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.) :

Madam Speaker, I thought it was somewhat interesting. To the best of my knowledge, it was not until the minister actually announced that we were going to be having this automobile theft summit that the leader of the Conservative Party started to ask questions about the issue of auto theft in Canada. I know it has been a concern for the government for a while now and we are addressing it through the summit. There is a lot of emphasis on border controls and theft that leads to the export of vehicles, but there is also a lot of local joyriding around automobile theft. Can he provide the House a better sense of what they will be looking at during the summit?

Hon. Dominic LeBlanc :

Madam Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for the work he has done in his home province of Manitoba and the city of Winnipeg to collaborate with local law enforcement, police and border services to bring every attention to bear on what, as he noted in an earlier intervention, has been a problem there for a long time. The Canada Border Services Agency intercepted over 1,800 stolen vehicles in 2023 alone. Our government has invested to restore the more than thousand jobs that were cut from border services by the previous Conservative government.

We have added 800 more officers above those who had been cut, whose jobs we restored, under that Conservative government. We will continue to invest in the RCMP and border services so they can partner with local and provincial police forces to really do what is necessary to reduce the number of vehicles stolen in a significant way. Concrete outcomes and action plans are going to come from the meeting in a few days in Ottawa.

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP) :

Madam Speaker, as we are debating this issue that has hit so many Canadians and has been a source of real concern across the country, and mentioning who should get credit for raising it first, it occurs to me that the hon. minister might have a comment. It seems to me that where we began to see some traction on the issue was not from a political party, but the investigative journalism of the CBC in finding that these car rings were taking vehicles from driveways in Canada and putting them on container ships. That is where I first saw this. Therefore, I thank the CBSA agents and the police, but I also want to thank the CBC for shining the light on this.

Hon. Dominic LeBlanc :

Madam Speaker, obviously we share the view of my friend from Saanich—Gulf Islands on the importance of investigative journalism. It is a public broadcaster that is well financed and has the resources necessary to do the work in a democracy, which is essential for all of us. [ Translation ] We saw that with programs such as Enquête , for example, Radio-Canada has done a really good job of drawing the attention of all Canadians to the problems associated with organized crime in Canada. I agree with my colleague on how important it is that Canadians understand the magnitude of the problem.

Our job, of course, is to put all the essential resources and effort required into fighting organized crime.

Ms. Kristina Michaud (Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, BQ) :

Madam Speaker, I am delighted to have the opportunity to elaborate on this subject. As I was saying earlier, the Conservatives are finally paying attention. They now realize that this is an important topic and that it might be a good idea to add it to their arsenal of election slogans. As my colleague from Saanich—Gulf Islands was saying a little earlier, it is true that investigative journalism brought this problem to our attention a few months ago. There are also organizations that come to Ottawa to tell us about certain issues and raise awareness about them.

Last April, I met with people from the Corporation des concessionnaires automobiles du Québec and the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association and they talked to me about this. It is wrong to say that they do not care about this phenomenon because they make money and they will be able to sell a car if a customer has theirs stolen, since they are reimbursed by the insurance company. It is not true that they do not care, because they are here in Ottawa to talk to us about it. They want the government to do something about this problem. I first became interested in the subject a few months ago.

I met with global car manufacturers, who also spoke to me about it. In October, following the feature story aired in J.E , a television program on TVA, and after the numerous news reports of the Journal de Montréal’s investigations bureau, I announced that I was going to move a motion at the public safety and national security committee. I talked to my colleagues about it, because we often see members of certain parties come totally out of left field with a motion on any given subject, thinking everyone is going to accept it as is.

It is important to discuss these things with colleagues first and to make them aware of the issue. That is how I came to talk to my Conservative colleagues about the auto theft problem. They seemed to be very interested. When I moved the motion, all parties voted in favour of it. Everyone had a story to tell, everyone had a friend or colleague who had their vehicle stolen. A Conservative colleague even told me that he personally had his car stolen. There was definitely a consensus that this was something we should look into as soon as possible.

At the public safety and national security committee, we were looking at Bill C-20 . That was significantly delayed by the Conservative Party for reasons we may or may not be aware of. The same thing is happening now with Bill C-26 . The process has been delayed, and our committee agenda has us looking at the bill on auto theft after that. I do not really understand why the Conservatives are trying to delay this study as much as possible, when they are making it a priority today by talking about it.

If it were that important to them, they would be working hard on the public safety and national security committee to finally get it done. With today’s motion, they may be trying to get material for pre-election, or even election, slogans, because we get the impression that the Conservative Party may already be on the campaign trail. The Bloc Québécois did not get the memo. The Conservatives’ new slogan is in today’s motion, which states, “after eight years of soft on crime policies, this Prime Minister has created the auto theft crisis”. Who knew? The Prime Minister himself created the auto theft crisis.

He sure has broad shoulders. I am not saying this to defend him. It is true that the Liberals have not done much in recent years to combat this problem. However, that the Prime Minister single-handedly created the crisis is something we cannot take very seriously. I would even go so far as to say that the entire argument laid out in the Conservatives’ motion is completely disconnected from reality, despite the fact that the problem is all too real.

If one looks at the problem with a minimum of seriousness, it is immediately clear that the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020 caused significant disruptions in the logistics chain around the world. One of the most hard-hit sectors was the industry producing the semiconductors needed for all microprocessors. The microprocessor shortage led to a worldwide reduction in auto manufacturing, which made demand go up. This increased the cost of used vehicles. Crime gangs jumped on the opportunity and quickly specialized in car theft and shipment to other markets.

This was already happening on a smaller scale, but the pandemic and the impact it had on supply chains accelerated the phenomenon. Because of its geographical location, Montreal became an auto theft hub. Why was that? Because Montreal is home to the largest port in eastern Canada that provides access to the rest of the world. Of course other ports are involved as well, such as those in Halifax and Vancouver. However, these ports have not been as affected as the port of Montreal. It is truly a gateway, a hub.

As I was saying, the pandemic exacerbated the situation but, on top of that, new technological developments have made auto theft more appealing.

(1110) For example, consider the increasingly frequent use of smart keys, which make it easier to steal vehicles. Several news reports have shown how thieves go about it. All they have to do is use a relay to amplify the signal of a smart key inside a house by standing next to the front door. With an accomplice, the thief can then open the car door and start the engine. They can also connect a computer to the onboard diagnostic port in the car, which enables them to use another key. All they have to do then is force open the door. It is child’s play for people who know what they are doing.

In Montreal, as in the rest of the country, we have seen people using Denver boots or steering wheel locks to make it harder for thieves to steal their car. I say harder, because thieves have found other ways to remove these devices and leave with a car in no time at all. This phenomenon is truly becoming a scourge, especially in Quebec and in Montreal. Auto theft has increased over the years. According to Équité Association, roughly 70,000 vehicles were stolen in Canada in 2022. That is huge.

Between 2021 and 2022, the number of thefts increased by 50%, or half, in Quebec, by nearly half in Ontario, or 48%, by 34% in Atlantic Canada, and by 18% in Alberta. 2022 was a record year for auto theft. The numbers are not yet known for 2023, but by all indications auto theft has increased yet again. The reported losses are in the billions of dollars for insurers, and we have seen premiums go up for ordinary people. Le Journal de Montréal reported that between 2012 and 2022, the average car insurance premium increased by 50% as well. This increase is in part tied to auto theft.

Given these facts, one of the questions we need to ask ourselves is why there is this growing interest in auto theft. It must be said that auto theft is one of the easiest and least risky sources of revenue for gangs, which then use part of the proceeds to finance other criminal activities, such as gun trafficking and human trafficking. Those are the two reasons. It is easy and low-risk. I explained earlier why it is easy. One reason it is so low-risk is that sentences are so light. In an

article in La Presse, Jacques Lamontagne, director of investigations for Quebec and the Atlantic region at Équité Association and a retired Montreal police force criminal investigator, explained—

(1115) [ English ]

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes) :

There are a couple of conversations going on in the House and the sound levels are rising. I would just ask members, if they want to have those conversations, to maybe step outside. Otherwise, they may want to listen because they may want to ask questions of or make comments to the hon. member who is delivering a speech right now. The hon. member for Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia.

[ Translation ]

Ms. Kristina Michaud :

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I was just saying that this man, Jacques Lamontagne, is a seasoned professional and he said the following:

There are more legal consequences to crossing the border with four kilos of cocaine than with stolen vehicles. Both crimes pay big dividends [to criminal groups and] the criminal underworld. Young thugs run less of a risk if they steal a Jeep Wrangler than if they sell narcotics on the street....There's not much of a deterrent if people know that they'll probably be let off for a first [offence] or, at worst, serve four to six months for car theft compared to a sentence lasting years for selling illicit substances.

I will return to Mr. Lamontagne's use of the term “young thugs”. The phenomenon is fairly widespread. Crime gangs often use young people who often have no criminal record and are sometimes minors. They are asked to steal cars or transport illegal guns because the punishment for first offences is rarely harsh. It is a kind of strategy that these people use. I am not saying that the thieves should not go to prison, but I think that we need to focus primarily on going after these criminal gangs and their leaders.

Where the Conservative Party goes wrong is in assuming that this entire crisis was created by the Prime Minister himself and by lax policies, like Bill C-5 , as the Conservatives are claiming. The motion specifically calls on the government to "immediately reverse changes the Liberal government made in their soft on crime Bill C-5 that allows for car stealing criminals to be on house arrest instead of jail.” Reading the motion, it is clear that the Conservatives are trying to link the increase in auto theft since 2015 to Bill C-5.

As my colleague mentioned earlier, Bill C-5 received royal assent at the very end of 2022. I have no idea how the Conservatives came to the conclusion that Bill C-5 is to blame, since auto theft has been increasing since 2015. I do not think there is one simple explanation. The Conservatives are trying to find simple solutions to complicated problems. They say that this Prime Minister has been in office since 2015, so he is responsible for all of society's problems. Again, I am not defending the Prime Minister, but at some point, members have to put forward serious arguments.

Contrary to Conservative claims, Bill C‑5 did not do away with minimum sentences for auto theft. Subsection 333.1(1) of the Criminal Code provides for a minimum sentence of six months in the case of a third offence. The Conservatives may well say that is not enough, but there is one major problem with their assertion. Are they aware that subsection 333.1(1) was added to the Criminal Code by the Conservatives themselves in 2010 via Bill S‑9 ? If they now find that that is not enough, they have only themselves to blame.

In this motion, the Conservatives also say that Bill C‑5 allowed for conditional sentences for auto theft. These are also known as house arrest, or what the Conservative leader likes to call Netflix sentences. It is true that the Liberals repealed subparagraph 742.1(f)(vii), which prevented conditional sentencing for auto theft. However, the other paragraphs in

section 742.1 set out conditions for conditional sentencing: The court must be convinced that there is no risk to society, and the term of imprisonment must be less than two years. The judge may also impose any conditions they deem necessary. In other words, there is nothing preventing a judge from saying no to a conditional sentence. A judge should be able to exercise judgment. The Conservatives are assuming judges are not capable of doing that.

A conditional sentence cannot be imposed for a sentence of two years or more, so it is not an option in the most serious cases, because the maximum sentence is actually 10 years. The Conservatives are also forgetting that there is always a bail hearing to determine whether an offender can be released while awaiting trial. Unless there are aggravating factors, it is rare for a person to remain in jail while awaiting trial for auto theft.

In other words, the Conservatives' claim that criminals are being caught and then immediately released because of Bill C‑5 is unfounded, because that was happening long before Bill C‑5 came into force. Once again, it is up to the judge to decide whether an offender should be kept in jail while awaiting trial and what conditions the offender must meet, especially since, as I mentioned earlier, criminals often use minors because they are handed lesser sentences. I agree with the Conservatives about one thing in every case. Part of the problem is that Ottawa has done absolutely nothing to control auto theft.

Under the current conditions, even life in prison will not act as a deterrent, because the federal government is doing absolutely nothing to monitor the port of Montreal, where criminals can easily ship stolen vehicles overseas. I will come back to that later. However, I want to close by talking about the second part of the Conservative motion, which seeks to “strengthen Criminal Code provisions to ensure repeat car stealing criminals remain in jail”.

(1120) Once again, it was the Conservatives who created a specific offence for auto theft, with their Bill S‑9 and

section 333.1 in 2010. If they believe that sentences are not long enough, they have only themselves to blame. The Conservative leader proposed that a third offence be punishable by three years in prison instead of the six months set out in the Criminal Code. The current six-month sentence in the Criminal Code was a Conservative initiative. What the Conservative Party is proposing today are changes to measures it put in place when it was in power. The Conservative leader is also talking about eliminating house arrest, or conditional sentences, for thieves.

As I said, a sentence of two years or more already cannot be served at home. That said, Bill C-5 did allow judges to impose house arrest if they deemed it appropriate, but not automatically, as the Conservatives like to claim. However, the bill did not make any changes to release pending trial. Let us make one thing clear: The Bloc Québécois is entirely open to revising the Criminal Code to deal with auto theft. That is what the Montreal police department wants as well.

This time, they believe that new sections should be added concerning the export of stolen vehicles and that there should be stricter penalties for ring leaders. I think that might be a good solution. I imagine that will come out in the discussions at the national summit on Thursday. The last proposal in the Conservative motion concerns the Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, and the export of stolen vehicles. It asks that the CBSA be provided with the resources it needs to prevent auto theft in Canada. I could not agree more with this proposal. I spoke about this a few months ago.

I think that the CBSA, which is under federal jurisdiction, needs to do more. Some people say that it does not have the resources it needs to do more right now, that it is short on labour and funds. They need to figure out what the problem is. Clearly, the CBSA is not doing enough right now. I spoke about auto theft and how thieves steal vehicles; that is the first step. The second step is exporting the vehicles. Like auto theft, shipping the vehicles out of the country is practically risk free.

Clearly, for criminal gangs, it means higher costs and more organization, but it seems to be going well when you look at what is happening at the port of Montreal. That is because it is a sieve. Around 700,000 containers leave the port of Montreal every year. According to the Customs and Immigration Union, only 1% of all containers are searched. According to the Montreal Port Authority, or MPA, the law does not allow employees or the port authority to open a container unless a person's life is in danger or there is a serious environmental hazard.

According to the port's director of communications, when the containers arrive at the port, it is already too late to do anything. The containers remain sealed unless law enforcement intervenes for a specific reason. They need a warrant to open them, so they need reasonable grounds. Police forces have access to the port and can intervene. However, they do not patrol there because the MPA already has its own security guards. The MPA does not intervene because the police can do it and the police do not intervene because the MPA has its own security guards, so that is just great.

As for customs, the CBSA is responsible for controlling goods for export. CBSA agents can open containers. However, in October, we learned from the Journal de Montréal that there are only five border agents to inspect the containers in Montreal, which makes the task practically impossible. Yes, the CBSA is responsible for overseeing exports, but its mandate is more focused on imports. It also needs to look at what is coming into the country. That is understandable. Do changes need to be made to the CBSA's mandate to ensure that exports are better monitored? I think that is something we need to think about.

Another reason why it is easy to export stolen cars is that anyone can rent a container by filling out a simple online declaration form for the shipping company. We could do it without any problem, just as a small business could. Anyone can change their form up to 48 hours after shipping, so that obviously makes it possible for thieves to cover their tracks once the goods are already on their way to Europe, the Middle East or Africa. Finally, criminals use numbered companies to fill out those forms. They often use the same or similar serial numbers to defraud the CBSA on their export declaration form.

(1125) It should be easy for the Canada Border Services Agency to spot, easy to see that a vehicle serial number comes up repeatedly. At least, Le Journal de Montréal was able to do just that and identify the issue using a simple Excel document. However, for some unknown reason, it seems too difficult for the CBSA. As early as the fall of 2015, an Auditor General's report stated that export control at the border is ineffective and that only one in five high-risk containers was inspected.

Now, we are being told that there are almost no inspections and that, even when there is a concern that there may be high-risk contents, only one container in five is searched and checked. It is easy to understand why there are a huge number of stolen vehicles passing through the port of Montreal without anyone noticing. I asked the customs union to come testify before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security on Bill C‑21 .

The union told us that a lot of illegal or stolen material is shipped in containers that travel in and out of Canada not only by water, but also by train, and that the agency performs almost no inspections. At the time, the government dismissed the criticism out of hand, saying that it did not consider this information important. What Le Journal de Montréal's investigative bureau reported, in a nutshell, is that only five officers at the Port of Montreal conduct searches. They rely on a temperamental cargo scanner that is constantly breaking down.

The agency refuses to second an investigator to a special stolen vehicle export squad. The same serial numbers come up again and again. Critical information is not being forwarded to port services or police in a timely manner, and the agency apparently omits to report high-risk containers to its partners. We see that many organizations are involved, but, despite that, nothing is getting done. I would be very pleased to answer my colleagues' questions and I hope the summit being held next week will contribute to finding solutions to address this scourge.

Mr. Marc Dalton (Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, CPC) :

Madam Speaker, Canada was known as a safe country, but after eight years of Liberals and other parties that support them, such as the NDP and the Bloc, we are seeing an incredible increase in all sorts of crime, including auto theft. In Montreal, we have seen an increase of 100%. Everyone is paying the price. We are paying more for our automobile insurance. Will the Bloc Québécois vote in favour of our common-sense motion to protect Canadians, including Quebeckers?

(1130) Ms. Kristina Michaud :

Madam Speaker, one thing I really like about the Conservative motion is that it says we need to provide the Canada Border Services Agency with the resources it needs to operate. Something in the earlier discussions caught my attention. Liberal Party members said the Conservatives cut CBSA's budget when they were in power. Why is there one single officer stationed at the Port of Montreal to conduct searches? Is it because of the Conservatives' budget cuts, I wonder? Anyway, today they have changed their minds and they want to do more, but maybe they should not blame one government for this whole crisis when the previous government essentially did nothing or actually helped worsen the crisis.

[ English ]

Mr. Michael Coteau (Don Valley East, Lib.) :

Madam Speaker, the member opposite spoke a bit about the Conservative approach to finding solutions to this challenge and referred to those solutions as simplistic. Does she believe that the Conservatives' position on how to go forward in finding solutions actually would result in some real solutions in the long term to take on this issue?

[ Translation ]

Ms. Kristina Michaud :

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.

[ English ]

Ms. Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, NDP) :

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?

[ Translation ]

Ms. Kristina Michaud :

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.

(1135) [ English ]

Mr. Brian Masse (Windsor West, NDP) :

Madam Speaker, one of the things that are really interesting is the lack of training that is being provided for CBSA officers. Right now, people have to go through a recruitment process before they even get a job, and that is hard for women, who actually have to travel to one of two locations, away from their family members, including their children, for up to 18 weeks to get training to get into the service. I would ask the member if she would support reforming this process to make it more friendly for families and for workers who have children to actually get the training necessary, because we are short thousands of officers.

[ Translation ]

Ms. Kristina Michaud :

Madam Speaker, what I can say is that some housecleaning is definitely in order at the Canada Border Services Agency. The Customs and Immigration Union has appeared before us a number of times and in a number of fora to underscore things that are happening that maybe should not be happening. Mr. Sabourin was recently in the gallery when the bill introduced by my colleague from Mirabel to protect whistle-blowers was passed. He had taken a stand and complained about what was going on at the Canada Border Services Agency, but no one believed him until a few months ago.

While this may not be today's topic, I think it is important that we review what is going on at the Canada Border Services Agency, simply so that the people he mentioned are treated well.

[ English ]

Mr. Michael Coteau (Don Valley East, Lib.) :

Madam Speaker, there has been a lot of discussion in the House on this important issue today. We have heard many comments about the Conservatives in past governments making cuts to mitigate the effectiveness of fighting auto crime, but we have also heard about the tactics they have used in the House and in the committee structure to stop the process of finding long-term solutions. The member hinted at some of the committee processes that have been taking place and how the Conservatives have delayed finding real solutions to this issue. Can she comment a bit more on what was really behind the delay tactics by the Conservatives?

[ Translation ]

Ms. Kristina Michaud :

Madam Speaker, one of my Conservative colleagues was honest enough to tell me how he felt about this. These are tactics. The Bloc Québécois is an opposition party. As everyone knows, the Bloc Québécois will never come to power in Ottawa. We are here to represent the interests of Quebeckers. Even though the current government is not our favourite and we do not always agree with it, we try to study and improve each bill as much as possible and make gains for Quebeckers.

My Conservative colleague told me that his party, as the official opposition, would oppose any bill introduced by the Liberal government to stop it from passing. The Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security is studying Bill C‑26 on cybersecurity, which is extremely important, and the Conservative Party is doing everything it can to delay it. The Conservatives always have an issue or a concern that is more urgent, or a motion to move. They are always filibustering, which is unfortunate.

People elected us to do important work here in Ottawa, and we are being prevented from doing it because of these tactics. I want people who may be watching at home to realize this, but it is extremely difficult to get the message across. In any case, we in the Bloc Québécois continue to do our job, and we are very proud of that.

[ English ]

Mr. Brian Masse (Windsor West, NDP) :

Madam Speaker, I am honoured to split my time with the member for New Westminster—Burnaby , which is a beautiful place in Canada. I appreciate the member's work on this file, along with that of several others. He has had a long tenure in the House, so I will be looking forward to his comments after mine. With regard to the Conservative motion in front of us, I come from Windsor, Ontario, which is the automotive capital of Canada. It is also a border crossing in Canada with a maximum volume of trade taking place. We have grown up with this as a part of our DNA in our area.

In this debate today, I want to tackle not only a little about the auto industry, but also some of the CBSA elements that are being put forward in this motion. It is a bit emotional for me because, in my community, we have seen the struggle of, as well as the lack of support for, the workers, the men and women who are on the front line of protecting our country from the United States. The longest, undefended border in the world is between Canada and the United States. At the same time, there are some very bad people who have tried to cross over with some bad intentions.

Some of them are our own citizens, while others are American citizens. These instances have significant consequences, as any border MP would know, from Hamilton to Fort Erie and Niagara Falls, to other parts of Canada, even out to the west coast. I want to refer to that a bit later. However, I want to point out one thing that we have not talked a lot about. We should not let the auto industry off for its lack of innovation in stopping auto theft. Billions of dollars have gone into the auto sector for innovations, and I have supported that because they are very important.

At the same time, with the lack of a Canadian national auto policy, there is little we can do. There has been a carrot-and-stick approach to the issue. Looking at this historically, my father was an executive for Chrysler for much of his career. I remember the days when we heard debates on a number of different issues that were brought to the auto sector, and it refused to put in innovations. One of the most obvious ones from the history books was the issue of seat belts. Those in the auto sector actually resisted having them for many years.

There were also auto makers who did not want to stop having smoking devices and smoking elements in their cars. There were others who had innovations in their vehicles that turned out to be bad for the public, such as headlights that would pop up and recess at different times. There have been a lot of great innovations and good things that have taken place within the auto sector, but the personal vehicle manufacturing industry does bear some responsibility.

When there is massive public support to help transition this industry into a modern, safer place for all of us, then there is an expectation that public policy should be a part of that, and stopping auto thefts should also be a part of it. They have moved to automatic start devices as a competitive practice in the industry. At the same time, they have not kept up with the fact that someone can hack into these systems. There is a dual obligation in these matters. I have worked with the auto industry over a number of years.

I am sure that, if we put proper pressure on it and responsibility afterward if it does not do that, then we would get some achievements to help Canadians. We have to remember that losing a vehicle is not just a financial crime. The vehicles can often be used for a theft during that moment, with other victims, along with other types of crime that take place. We have focused on this a lot. I am going to transition to the exportation issue because Canada has basically become a cottage industry for many of the organized crime elements that want to steal our vehicles to sell abroad.

The reality is that auto theft in general has significant consequences, not for its individual crime, but for the subsequent crimes that take place once the vehicle is lifted. I mentioned the history of the men and women who serve on our border. I want people to picture what it is like to be at the border. I have a busy community where there are tens of thousands of people who cross every single day. When I was growing up, many times there would be a summer student, rather than a border officer, in the PIL booth that we pull up to.

Sometimes, people had to borrow bulletproof vests because they did not have enough vests at the border for our workers. I remember those days. If one were to go to where they are right now, one would see that they are finally armed and have some support. In the past, they would have to rely on municipal, provincial or federal police forces when there were problems with Americans and others showing up with arms or other types of illegal weaponry, drugs and other things.

We have to remember that, even under the best of circumstances, they could have somebody pulling up who is their friend, neighbour, family member, or somebody they know from their community who they are coaching soccer or hockey for. They have a job that is really hard in making sure that they do the proper scrutiny of every single person that crosses. They are making sure our country is safe.

(1140) That job is very much a strained job in many respects, and it does not get the support or understanding that it should. I believe this is what led to a famous quote in the House, for which I have yet to hear the Liberals officially apologize for, when Derek Lee called our border officers “wimps” because they walked off the job when armed Americans were coming. They had been identified as having criminal backgrounds, and border officers had to walk off because there were not proper supports at that time, even from law enforcement.

This brought a lot of clarity to me on how far away this place is from the job that needs to be done at our borders to keep us safe. We have seen successive Liberal and Conservative governments not even finish out the terms of collective agreements before they have to start bargaining again. That is just one thing. What I am trying to impress upon this debate is that this is a cultural thing.

We can talk about finally restoring some of the cuts that took place under the Conservative regime, such as when it cut the detector dogs or when it cut back on officers, or under the Liberals right now and the poor training program that has left us thousands of workers short. We are short 2,000 to 3,000 border service officers right now. We also have to change the culture of that organization itself, and it will be beneficial to hold a round table on that, but I wonder how much the union is being included in this.

I was included in a town hall meeting in Montreal on gun violence when Ralph Goodale was public safety minister, and sadly, all those efforts went nowhere because the government never followed up on the meeting. The subsequent government did not either. When we talk about the specifics of what is taking place in Montreal, there are some very specific issues that can be resolved. It has limited space and a current team that consists of eight officers who look at the exportation of vehicles and whether vehicles are stolen or not.

There are vehicles properly being exported and others that are not, and there is a limited number of officers looking at this. There is a fixation right now on making sure the imports are prioritized over the exports. Again, if we are putting the strain on the officers to get the vehicles out into our supply chain, we then need to reprioritize how we are doing it. The Conservative motion does not really give us a whole lot on that. We also know the Port of Montreal is short on space. That area is short on space, so the vehicles get stacked up, even the ones that have been found to be illegal.

The workers then need to call in the Montreal police force to help get rid of them because they do not have the right equipment. I talked about the bulletproof vests needing to be shared among workers back in the day. In this situation, they do not even have a tow truck or the capability to clear out the space. Management has not done anything to increase the space available, so they have rented space to look at these exports. On top of that, there has been no solution to increase that space or for them to get their own space. People are left with very practical problems that create problems for the inspections.

It is important to talk about the fact we have a management-heavy industry right in the CBSA culture and with hiring at the CBSA. In some areas, there are seven managers to six officers. There should be a better ratio of boots on the ground. The government has focused on the worst things it could focus on, such as the ArriveCAN app, where it focused on developing an app versus training officers. This is one of the worst things it could do. We need to stop looking at technology as being the only silver bullet in dealing with this situation. The problem is that the technology we do bring in is so often broken.

Right now, there is screening and other types of equipment in Montreal that had to be brought in from Windsor, Ontario, because the equipment in Montreal could not be fixed. If we are going to rely on technology, we need to have the proper and sustainable environment for it and we need to train the workers. I want to complete with a very important point, which is about the training of officers. Currently, one has to come in as a recruit who does not get paid. We need to start hiring, training and supporting those people.

We need to be giving better opportunities for the training to take place so we can make getting boots on the ground a reality.

(1145) Mr. Scot Davidson (York—Simcoe, CPC) :

Madam Speaker, I want to talk about facts. In York region, car theft is up 200%. In 2023, there was 4,294 vehicles stolen. Violent crime is up 39%. I was out last weekend in my constituency visiting a couple of farms, and people are worried about creeping crime in my riding. They said to me that this country is just not the same anymore and that there is crime and chaos everywhere. I am going to cite the latest, which comes from an

article in BradfordToday, which states that a suspect who was arrested twice in less than six hours faces multiple charges. Within six hours, he went from stealing one vehicle to stealing another vehicle. I wonder if my colleague can comment on that.

Mr. Brian Masse :

Madam Speaker, I do not know about the validity of the statistics that were put before me, but the question, to me, is why the Conservatives voted against the RCMP and CBSA funding, and other initiatives, in the last budgetary moment. They created a special process in Parliament, where they itemized all of the votes. They specifically made us vote on those allocations that they now complain about, including those for prisons. That is a unique thing that I have not seen in my 20 years here.

When we have done this before, one selects the things one supports and then one votes against the things one does not support. They voted against prison supports. They voted against RCMP supports. They voted against public safety supports. Why did they specifically create a parliamentary process to prove that they do not support those initiatives?

(1150) Mr. Michael Coteau (Don Valley East, Lib.) :

Madam Speaker, I have noticed that, over my last two years in the House, Conservatives use crime as a mechanism to anger Canadians. The simple fact is that, yes, crime has shifted in the last few years, but there is no question that Canada remains among the safest countries on the entire planet. In fact, there was a report that just came out for travellers in Canada, and it said that Canada was the safest country on the planet to travel to as a traveller. I wanted to maybe get a comment from the member. Does he believe that Conservatives are using crime as a way to create anger among Canadians to divide Canadians and pull more support to Conservatives?

Mr. Brian Masse :

Madam Speaker, here is what we have: We have either aggressive behaviour with Conservatives using it as a hot-button issue, or we have what I would argue is passive aggressive behaviour with the Liberals, where they can create a summit and have all these meetings, just like the one I participated in that was related to gun violence and youth gangs, and then they do not do anything about it. The reality is that we need action at the end of the day. Whether it is aggressive or passive aggressive, I do not really care. I just want to see action because Canadians deserve that.

[ Translation ]

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes) :

We have time for a brief question from the member for Longueuil—Saint-Hubert.

Mr. Denis Trudel (Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, BQ) :

Madam Speaker, I cannot make any promises. As the member mentioned, there is also a technology factor involved. I have never had my car stolen, but I have had things stolen out of my car three times in the past two years in my riding. My key hangs two feet behind the door, and thieves hack the signal. It seems to me that these technologies are quite advanced. They can be hacked. I cannot believe that no one can develop a system to block this signal, to prevent the system from being hacked. It is inconceivable to me that this is impossible. The member touched on this in his discussions with auto manufacturers. I wonder if he could tell us more about that.

[ English ]

Mr. Brian Masse :

Madam Speaker, it would be really good to go back to the auto sector on this. They are launching vehicles with poorer technology for stopping auto theft. As for the member's experience, I am sorry to hear of that. I can tell members that, at different times, I have found my car broken into. I am just happy that they were just instances of people basically taking what they wanted and not vandalizing the rest. I have had other times where the windows have been smashed because they saw something. These things are not new.

They have been happening for a long period of time, but the reality is that, with changing technology, and with the automation of vehicles starting remotely, we have not kept up with security, in how this is used to sell vehicles, maintain them and keep them in our driveways.

Mr. Peter Julian (New Westminster—Burnaby, NDP) :

Madam Speaker, in reality, as members know, we take the issue of auto theft very seriously. I want to start by saying that the NDP, unlike the two other parties, essentially has a five-point plan. I will be moving that amendment at the end of my speech, so that the Conservatives could incorporate elements that would actually make a difference in combatting auto theft. It is something that has impacted many Canadians across the country; my neighbourhood is no exception to that. The reality is that we see those numbers rising, and the Liberals have not done anything to combat auto theft.

I note that the most current figures show an auto theft rate of 271 per 100,000 Canadians. That is 271 thefts for a population of 100,000 people. We do not want to go back to the days of the Harper regime, when the numbers were almost twice that. There were 487 thefts per 100,000, or 443 in some years. The five worst years, in terms of auto thefts over the last 15 years, were under the Harper regime. Therefore, the Conservatives need to learn a lesson from their very bad record in terms of the rate of auto theft that existed under the Harper Conservatives.

How the Conservatives responded is illustrative of how important it is for the NDP voice in the House, as adults in the room, to actually bring forward very thoughtful policy. The reality is that the Harper regime cut $600 million from RCMP funding. Why would that even make sense when, as I mentioned, there was a high crime rate? Why would the Conservatives cut and slash to that extent? It does not make sense. However, it is not just that; it is that over 1,000 CBSA border officers were cut as well.

Therefore, the Conservatives gutted the CBSA services at a time when, as we know, the crime syndicates were increasingly international in nature. There were cuts to the RCMP and cuts to the CBSA, but the most egregious cuts were to a program that ran across the country. It had a remarkable impact in British Columbia, and I worked very closely with it; that is the B.C. crime prevention centre, which invests in and works with local law enforcement to cut crime. We know that a dollar spent on crime prevention actually saves six dollars in policing costs, in court costs and in prison costs.

Therefore, it is a remarkably effective investment. If the government invests in crime prevention in the country, it ends up achieving a lower crime rate, having fewer victims and, ultimately, saving money on policing, on prisons and on court costs. What did the Harper regime do? Conservatives have never stood in this House and explained why they did this, but they slashed crime prevention funding to the point where centres such as the B.C. crime prevention centre had to close. None of this makes any sense at all.

If we go back to how Conservatives act now as opposed to how they acted when the Harper regime was in place, we see that we have to take action. For most of the years under Harper, the auto theft rate was higher than it is now. The Liberals have not taken action, and the NDP is pressing in this House of Commons that we adopt the five points we have raised. I hope to add them to the motion, if the Conservatives agree to act. The Conservatives had an opportunity to provide additional supports for the RCMP, for CBSA and for FINTRAC, and I am going to come back to that in a moment.

The reality is that FINTRAC plays a role in cutting down the financial transactions that, internationally, allow the crime syndicates to prosper. What did Conservatives do? In December 2023, they proposed and voted to cut the CBSA by $23 million. CBSA is already underfunded. As I mentioned earlier, the Conservatives cut 1,100 positions when they were in government. What possible reason could Conservatives give for slashing the budget for CBSA?

(1155) There is more. In vote 76, they also voted to gut FINTRAC, which has the primary responsibility to actually track and catch those who are using the flow of money internationally to foster crime. Conservatives voted to cut that. Perhaps the most egregious votes were votes 103, 104 and 105. Conservatives voted to cut over $100 million from the RCMP. Conservatives would say that is a lot less than when we were in government and slashed $600 million.

However, the reality is that, given their actions in December, their motion today shows huge hypocrisy, a contradiction that is difficult for any Conservative to defend. That is why they are choosing not to debate this in the House today. They are choosing not to respond to why they gutted the RCMP, CBSA and crime prevention programs, as well as why, over the last 15 years, they had the five worst years for auto theft.

The Conservatives have not explained that or why they voted to cut FINTRAC, CBSA and the RCMP. (1200) [ Translation ] Let us see what the Conservatives do in the House on the issue of crimes that affect all Canadians, from New Westminster—Burnaby to Montreal and Saguenay. We know that there is an international crime ring that makes money by stealing vehicles. The Conservatives' answer at the time, when they were in power, was to make significant cuts to the RCMP's budget, reduce the services of the Canada Border Services Agency and apply budget cuts to every program intended to prevent crime.

That is what the Conservatives do. Right now, they are talking about common sense, but their actions in the past made no sense at all. There is very clear evidence that we cannot rely on the Conservatives. They do exactly the opposite of what they themselves are proposing in this motion. To conclude, this is serious business. The Liberals have not acted as they should have.

The Conservatives are contradicting themselves because they made budget cuts to all essential services aimed at preventing auto theft across Canada. [ English ] As is our practice in the NDP caucus, as adults in the room, we are actually going to propose something that would mean real action to counter auto theft and take out the parts of the Conservative motion that are disinformation. I hope they agree to the following amendment.

I move that the motion be amended by replacing the words “changes the Liberal government made in their soft on crime Bill C-5 that allows for car stealing criminals to be on house arrest instead of jail” with the words “cuts made to crime-prevention programs and to frontline border officers made by the previous Conservative government”, and adding the following after paragraph (c): “(

d) require auto manufacturers to improve security features in the cars they sell”, and “(

e) put in place tough new measures to crack down on organized crime and money laundering linked to auto thefts.” This is actually a five-point plan that would make a difference in auto thefts. We certainly hope that the Conservatives accept this amendment, which would fight auto theft in Canada.

The Deputy Speaker :

It is my duty to inform hon. members that an amendment to an opposition motion may be moved only with the consent of the sponsor of the motion, or in the case that he or she is not present, consent may be given or denied by the House leader, the deputy House leader, the whip or the deputy whip of the sponsored party. Since the sponsor is not present in the Chamber, I ask the acting whip if he consents to the amendment being moved. The hon. member for Calgary Centre.

Mr. Greg McLean :

Mr. Speaker, I have read the amendment the NDP is trying to put forward to a motion to make sure we address crime in this country. It seems to be putting the onus of the crimes onto the car companies and their workers. We reject that wholeheartedly. We ask the NDP to stop hiding behind the government and stop supporting it in everything it does. It is a preposterous amendment. We ask that—

The Deputy Speaker :

Order. The hon. House leader for the NDP.

Mr. Peter Julian :

Mr. Speaker, it says, “put in place tough new measures to crack down on organized crime and money laundering linked to auto thefts.” The member has obviously not read it, so I do not believe he should comment on it. Conservatives should just accept the amendment.

The Deputy Speaker :

This is not the place to actually have a debate. There is a lot of opportunity for people to have debate in the House. Therefore, I will ask the hon. acting whip whether he consents or does not consent to the amendment.

(1205) Mr. Greg McLean :

Mr. Speaker, I think it is pretty clear that the words the New Democrats are putting in here are a deflection to try to continue to cover up what the government is doing here, as they have finally become aware of it. We reject the amendment.

The Deputy Speaker :

There is no consent. Therefore, pursuant to Standing Order 85, the amendment cannot be moved at this time. Questions and comments, the hon. member for Don Valley East.

Mr. Michael Coteau (Don Valley East, Lib.) :

Mr. Speaker, I have been an elected member for 20 years, whether on the school board, provincial government or here. Fighting crime has always been connected to what I have worked on in my life, and there has always been a correlation between good investments in programming and preventative measures. Crime cannot be dealt with entirely through policing. The Conservatives seem to have a very narrow perspective on crime, which is to throw people in prison and throw away the key. I have always looked at preventative measures as one of the solutions to fight crime. How does the member think Conservatives would approach preventative measures for crime mitigation in this country?

Mr. Peter Julian :

Mr. Speaker, they do not. Conservatives are absolutely appalling when it comes to crime. We have talked about how high the auto theft rate was under the Harper Conservatives. They just said no to putting in place crime prevention programs, reinforcing frontline border officers, requiring auto manufacturers to ensure that there are security features in the cars they sell and putting in place tough new measures to crack down on organized crime and money laundering linked to auto thefts. We know that Conservatives are soft on money laundering and organized crime.

They will not take on corporate CEOs who are spending $10 on a car door for a $100,000 automobile. They are not putting in place any of the measures that would address the issue. Of course, when we look across the country at which provinces have the highest crime rates, they are the Conservative provinces. In every single case, they have policies that are designed to fuel crime, not cut it. Therefore, for Conservatives to say no to this common-sense amendment just shows complete and utter hypocrisy.

Mr. Marc Dalton (Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, CPC) :

Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is that, under the Liberals, supported by the New Democrats, auto thefts and crime have skyrocketed. The New Democrats need to bear some responsibility. New Democrats have pointed to the government confidence motions on funding that we have voted against. That is because we have no confidence in the government, unlike the New Democratic Party, which is supporting the incompetency of the Liberals. Canadians are paying the price. Under our plan, we will see some major investments and changes in ports regarding security. Will the New Democratic Party support our motion?

Mr. Peter Julian :

Mr. Speaker, we have seen the Conservative plan, and the Conservatives voted in front of the entire country. Every Canadian saw they wanted to cut over $100 million from the RCMP budget. Every Canadian saw they wanted to gut CBSA; they did it when they were in power and they are doing it again. Every Canadian saw they wanted to gut FINTRAC, which is supposed to be ensuring that criminal financial transactions are caught at source. I think every Canadian saw in December how a Conservative government would act. We lived through the Harper regime.

We know that, when it comes to crime, Conservatives simply do not have any smart-on-crime policies at all. The NDP offered a way to fix their motion, and they rejected it. They do not want to tackle organized crime. They do not want to crack down on money laundering. They do not want to install the crime prevention programs that save so much money and make sure that Canadians are not victims of crime. The Conservatives do not want to restore what they gutted when they were in power. They do not want to compel automobile CEOs to put in place security measures to ensure that cars cannot be stolen easily.

They said no to all of those things, and it is on the record.

(1210) Ms. Melissa Lantsman (Thornhill, CPC) :

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my colleague and good friend, the member for Oxford . Since 2015, the Liberals have pursued a systematic agenda of dismantling Canada’s judicial system and undermining the rule of law in this country. They have not only done so with their repeated ethics violations and blatant disrespect for the charter but have also done so through more legitimate means, like through acts of Parliament. Thanks to Liberal bills that passed under a former justice minister, committing crimes has become easier and more common than before.

It seems that under the current minister , the streak will continue, given the responses we have heard in the House already, along with some colourful language of course. At every step of the way, Liberals have placed the rights of offenders over the rights of victims, and their woke, out-of-touch ideology over common sense and safety. With respect to deterring crimes, the Liberals' Bill C-5 eliminates mandatory minimum sentences for dangerous crimes such as robbery with a firearm, sexual assault and drug trafficking. There are others.

Not only that, but it also allows hardened criminals to serve their reduced sentence in the comfort of their own home, to serve time while watching TV in their living room, sleeping in their own bed and enjoying the privileges that all those who have not committed crimes enjoy. With respect to arresting criminals, the catch-and-release practices now mean that it is nearly impossible to keep dangerous offenders in jail for more than a few hours. They are then released back into the world, free to commit crimes, sometimes even the same crimes and on the same day, over and over again.

The revolving door spins, cycling through a rotation of hardened, merciless lawbreakers who face no accountability. They are free to break the law over and over again, putting the public at risk and propagating unnecessary harm on communities, innocent victims, families and neighbourhoods. Finally, with respect to prosecuting criminals, after eight years of the Liberal-NDP incompetence, the government has decayed our justice system and made it just a shell of its former self. It takes months to get a court date.

Resources have been stretched to the limit, which makes it harder to catch criminals, and it is harder to keep them accountable. Therefore it is no surprise that our streets are more dangerous and that Canadians are worried that their once-safe neighbourhoods are subject to crime, chaos, drugs and disorder. Every single day we see new, outrageous headlines about individuals who are putting communities in danger and about a system that is failing Canadians. Just last week, a 43-year-old man stabbed a total stranger with a syringe in broad daylight in downtown Toronto.

The man was out on bail for previous assaults and has had more than 40 convictions in his lifetime, including failure to comply with the court and failure to attend court dates. The incident was in the middle of the day in Toronto. However, thanks to the Liberal policies, we know he will get bail one more time and that the cycle will continue again and again. Stories like these add up; that is what makes Canadians feel unsafe. It is not just a feeling; it is based on empirical data and evidence.

The stories not only add up to broken communities, broken victims and broken families; they also a story about the state of our country. Since 2015, gang crimes have doubled and violent crime is up 37%. Canada’s murder rate is the highest it has been in 30 years, since the last time there was a Liberal government in power, and nowhere is the story more out of control and more apparent than when it comes to auto theft. Too many people wake up, look out the window and see that their car that was sitting in their driveway the night before is no longer there. It is gone.

It was taken while they were sleeping in safe communities like mine, where, at one time, nobody locked their front door. Since 2015, car thefts have tripled in Canada. More than 100,000 vehicles are being stolen every year, including nearly 10,000 in Toronto alone. That means that every six minutes in Canada, a car is stolen. Gangs and criminals profit from the criminal activity and use it to finance even more criminal activities, like more car theft, arms trafficking, human trafficking and drug trafficking.

(1215) Do not listen to me; the Prime Minister actually admitted it in his own press release. It costs every Canadian who drives almost everywhere more to pay for this.