Auto theft insurance claims were down slightly in Atlantic Canada last year, but that doesn’t mean the problem is going away, Insurance Bureau of Canada said.

IBC’s data on the cost of auto theft in the region shows a 10-year trend of increases that have pushed claims costs up 275% in that span, from $8.4 million in 2014 to more than $31 million in 2024.

In a news release, the national trade association representing insurers labeled New Brunswick “the auto theft capital” of Atlantic Canada, with 788 auto theft claims totaling more than $16 million in 2024 — a jump of 228% since 2014. Over the past decade, the three cities in Atlantic Canada with the largest increases in claims costs are all in New Brunswick: Saint John (up 520%), Moncton (746%) and Fredericton (1,672%).

IBC vice-president of Ontario and Atlantic Amanda Dean said all levels of government should continue to take action on auto theft in Atlantic Canada and throughout the nation, but added, “It is most critical to tackle the crisis in New Brunswick to ensure it doesn’t become one of the country’s primary hot spots for vehicle thefts.”

The good news is theft claims in New Brunswick fell by 4.8% year-over-year in 2024. The region’s largest decrease last year came in Prince Edward Island, where it dropped 18.8% in auto theft claims from 2023 in the region. On the other hand, theft claims rose by 12.4% in Nova Scotia and 5.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“We need to treat vehicle theft as the national crisis it is,” Dean said. “It affects people and communities in every corner of the region and beyond. The strategies and tools to address these issues exist. They stem from the federal government’s 2024 auto theft summit.”

IBC said provincial governments must provide more resources for coordinated inter-agency enforcement and bolster enforcement capacity, as Ontario recently did, by creating provincial auto theft teams with dedicated prosecutorial support to strengthen provincial capacity to police and deter organized crime’s involvement in auto theft.

The association said Newfoundland and Labrador’s Insurance Validation Program is a positive step. The program allows provincial auto registries to instantly confirm that a vehicle has active insurance, deterring uninsured driving.

At the federal level, IBC said, the government should continue to implement the National Action Plan on Combating Auto Theft, including modernizing and updating the Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to make cars harder to steal, noting outdated regulations that have made theft easier have contributed to the decade-long rise in auto theft.

IBC also encouraged the government to follow through on its platform commitment to boost the capacity of the Canada Border Services Agency to prevent stolen vehicles from exiting the country, saying thefts could be prevented by expanding and improving the Interprovincial Record Exchange for better data- and information-sharing with provincial registries, and by closing vehicle registration loopholes.

“Auto theft is not a victimless crime,” Dean said. “A stolen car is just the tip of the iceberg. The proceeds from stolen vehicles fund organized crime, and the amount of this illicit funding is staggeringly high — and growing. The time to act is now.”