Photo: Ryan Remiorz The Canadian Press Pierre Poilievre presented the second part of his plan to combat car theft, which is on the rise across the country.
Jeanne Corriveau
3:17 p.m.
- Canada
Visiting Montreal on Tuesday, Pierre Poilievre presented the second part of his plan to combat car theft, which is on the rise in the country. If he became prime minister, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada would equip federal ports, including the Port of Montreal, with equipment capable of detecting the presence of stolen cars in containers shipped abroad.
Pierre Poilievre accuses Justin Trudeau of having transformed federal ports into “parking lots for stolen vehicles which then disappear abroad”.
Le Journal de Montréal reported last October that the Port of Montreal only had five agents to inspect the 580,000 containers that leave the port from Montreal every year. The Conservative leader proposes with his “common sense plan” to hire 75 additional agents, including around thirty in Montreal, and to equip ports with scanners to inspect containers.
He therefore suggests the purchase of 24 scanners for the four main federal ports, namely Montreal, Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Halifax. “Each scanner will be capable of scanning 154 containers per hour. That means almost a million containers per year for each scanner. »
According to him, this plan will make it possible to more effectively intercept stolen cars before they go abroad. “If someone sees that their car is stolen, they should be able to call the police and tell them that their car is on its way to the Port of Montreal. Someone with a scanner should be able to find it and remove it before it is sent outside [the country],” he explained. “At the same time, the scanners will help us prevent guns and drugs from entering Canada. »
To finance this plan, Pierre Poilievre would cut $165 million in federal spending on management consultants. “If you manage a department and you are not capable of managing and you need the consultants to tell you how to manage, you will be fired,” he said. An amount of 135 million would then be used for scanners and hiring workers at federal ports. “We will save a net total of 30 million. So we will spend less to do more. »
The day before, in Brampton, Ontario, Pierre Poilievre had promised to strengthen the penalties imposed on car thieves by putting repeat offenders behind bars, thus putting an end to house arrest as an option for people convicted of this type of offense.