WHY YOUR CAR INSURANCE GOES UP - IT'S NOT JUST ACCIDENTS!

 

Auto Theft Is Canada’s Quiet Crime Wave — and Vancouver’s Port Is the On-Ramp

Auto theft in Canada isn’t just back — it’s booming. Nationally, theft claims have exploded, with insurers paying out a record $1.5 billion in 2023 — nearly triple the pre-2018 average. That’s not joyriding kids with a screwdriver; it’s a professionalized, international business model.

Every stolen SUV or luxury sedan is a brick in a bigger criminal empire. These thefts aren’t random — they’re feeding a sophisticated export market. Vehicles vanish from Metro Vancouver driveways and dealer lots, and within days they’re in shipping containers, bound for high-demand markets in Africa, Asia, or the Middle East.

And here’s where B.C. plays an outsized role: the Port of Vancouver. It’s Canada’s largest, and by all accounts porous enough to make life easy for organized crime. RCMP and CBSA make occasional headlines for seizing stolen cars in outbound containers — but those are the rare catches. Most slip through. In an era of fentanyl and multi-continent crime networks, the same infrastructure that moves drugs in can just as efficiently move stolen vehicles out.

For the rest of us, this crime wave hits in the wallet. Insurance payouts drive premiums up for every driver, not just those hit directly. ICBC doesn’t have to publish the exact B.C. cost of theft claims for us to do the math — when national losses are measured in billions, our share is steep, and we all pay for it.

The uncomfortable truth? Until we treat port security as a central front in the fight against organized crime, we’re just chasing shadows. Auto theft isn’t a nuisance — it’s a multi-billion-dollar transfer of wealth from honest Canadians to global criminal syndicates, and our own infrastructure is holding the door open.