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       48 Canadian government vehicles stolen in recent years: data
        
 (HTM) Source
        
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       The federal Liberals are trying to crack down on a scourge of auto
       thefts across the country, even as the government is struggling to
       keep its own vehicles away from thieves, new data show.
        
       Documents tabled in the House of Commons on Monday show 48 government
       vehicles from 14 departments and agencies were stolen between January
       2016 and February of this year.
        
       Ministers are not immune, either. The official vehicle of the minister
       of justice was stolen three times in as many years between 2021 and
       2023.
        
       Ontario is the province where the largest proportion of vehicles were
       nabbed, including 10 in Ottawa, where most of the federal government
       is based, and two in the Toronto area.
        
       Vehicles were also reported stolen in British Columbia, Alberta,
       Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec and Nunavut.
        
       Perhaps unsurprisingly given the number of vehicles in its fleet, the
       RCMP was hit the hardest. All told, 19 of its vehicles were taken,
       mostly in the Prairie provinces.
        
       Parks Canada had seven vehicles stolen, Agriculture and Agri-Food
       Canada reported four stolen and the Canada Border Services Agency and
       Indigenous Services Canada each had three taken.
        
       The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Fisheries and Oceans Canada,
       which includes the Canadian Coast Guard, each saw two vehicles stolen.
        
       And one vehicle was stolen from each of another handful of departments
       and agencies: the Canadian Revenue Agency, Environment and Climate
       Change Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada, the Finance
       Department, Transport Canada and Global Affairs Canada.
        
       The documents say of the four dozen stolen vehicles, two were stolen
       more than once and 34 have been recovered.
        
       An Équité Association report prepared for a national auto theft summit
       organized by the federal government in February found more than 70,000
       cars were stolen in 2023, based on an analysis of police data from
       across the country.
        
       It found between 2021 and 2023, the number of stolen vehicles climbed
       48 per cent in Ontario, 58 per cent in Quebec and 34 per cent in
       Atlantic Canada.
        
       Police say while as many as one-third of stolen vehicles are being
       resold within Canada, a majority of stolen vehicles are ferried out of
       the country by organized crime rings, often in containers bound for
       Africa and the Middle East.
        
       _This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 7, 2024._
        
        
        
        
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