Car thefts down across Canada in 2024; Quebec sees largest drop

Car thefts declined across Canada last year, but most significantly in Quebec where they dropped by nearly a third.

Équité Association, an organization devoted to preventing insurance fraud and crime, released its annual statistics on auto theft Wednesday. The numbers show a marked drop in car thefts.

Nationally, the association said the number of car thefts fell by 18.6 per cent in 2024 compared to 2023. In Quebec, that number was 32.4 per cent. 

Despite the decline, Équité Association said car theft is "still unreasonably high and poses an ongoing safety threat to all Canadians." 

Though the amplitude of the problem is still significant, 2024 was the first year since 2020 that the number of car thefts declined compared to the previous year. There were 57,359 reported car thefts in Canada in 2024. In 2023, there were 70,475.

Quebec also had a lower recovery rate of stolen vehicles than elsewhere in the country. Nationally, 59.3 per cent of stolen vehicles were recovered. In Quebec, just 43.6 per cent of vehicles were recovered.

Équité Association said many of those vehicles were recovered from ports before they could be shipped overseas. The organization said it worked with partners, including Montreal police, to recover 1,909 vehicles at the ports of Montreal and Halifax, valued at approximately $87.76 million in 2024. 

WATCH | Quebec sees largest drop in car thefts: 

Car thefts in Canada are down. Have initiatives to combat the problem actually worked?

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Duration 2:09

Though the amplitude of the problem is still significant, it appears efforts to curb car thefts in the country have begun to pay off. Canada’s insurance crime watchdog says thefts dropped about 18 per cent in 2024 across the country and almost 33 per cent in Quebec.

It said it also provided expert examinations that resulted in the recovery of another 598 stolen vehicles at the Port of Montreal, including 483 from Ontario and 115 from Quebec.

Bryan Gast, the vice-president of investigative services at Équité Association, attributed the decline to police actions.

"There's some great enforcement work being done," he said, though he noted that the number of stolen vehicles remains high: "We're not out of the crisis yet."

Gast said vehicle manufacturers need to make their cars harder to steal. In a media release, Équité Association noted that Transport Canada is expected to release measures in 2025 that may force auto manufacturers to modernize safety devices for auto theft prevention.