Winnipeggers affected by car thefts.

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Winnipeg police registered 3,660 vehicles stolen in the city in 2023, a slight decrease compared to the 3,749 in 2022. But this toll remains higher than that of 2018 to 2021.

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Owners of stolen cars in Winnipeg hope tougher penalties will be imposed on thieves, as s&#x27 ;a summit on auto theft was held this week in Ottawa, organized by the federal government.

Victims of car theft hope that the solutions discussed at this meeting will help discourage car thieves.

Morgan Lepak is adamant about this, after having his car stolen on February 1, in his workplace parking lot, just minutes after arriving at the office.

I couldn't believe it. I returned to my work. I checked my purse…. My keys are there, and there was no other key in the vehicle which was locked, she explains .

I think we need harsher sanctions for people who do that, because now I no longer have a car, she maintains.

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Another Winnipeg resident, Danny Fischer, also believes that imposing harsher penalties is one solution. His van parked in front of his house was stolen on the evening of February 2. If the Winnipeg Police Service found his van, however, the belongings left inside are missing.

My son and I parked the truck in front of the house between eight and nine the night before. We went out at 11:30 the next day. We noticed that he was missing, explains Danny Fischer.

Car theft problem is different in Winnipeg than it is elsewhere, says Sgt. Winnipeg Police Service Financial Crime, Trevor Thompson.

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The Winnipeg Police Service says it is tracking national trends and is seeing that in other provinces or cities, thefts of these vehicles are largely done without the keys, using technology – intercepting transmissions between the key fob and the vehicle.

Trevor Thompson states that, in Winnipeg, more than 90% of motor vehicle thefts are crimes of opportunity, and the vast majority are they are vehicles stolen using the owner's keys or key fob.

To discourage criminals who steal cars, the federal government announced its intention to increase the severity of penalties at the opening of the Ottawa summit on February 7.

Manitoba Justice Minister Matt Wiebe seems in favor. I have heard that mandatory minimum sentences are being considered. These are measures that I think will help.

We ask the federal government to act in the areas that it controls, that&# x27;it's about working with manufacturers or with border services.

A quote from Matt Wiebe, Minister of Justice of Manitoba

Manitoba does not have the same organized crime problems as other provinces when it comes to vehicle theft, however, noted the latter.

He added that he wanted to make sure that this kind of things do not infiltrate Manitoba by emphasizing the need to understand exactly the causes of car theft in Manitoba.

Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth, also president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, attended Thursday's summit. He said harsher sanctions are not always the solution.

For example, most of the time it's young people who are involved in theft, and I think we have to be measured against that, Mr. Smyth said.

According to industry data, automobile theft increased by 50% in Quebec, and by 48.3%, in Ontario, in 2022.

Faced with the scale of the phenomenon, the federal Minister of Public Safety , Dominic LeBlanc, announced financial support of $28 million to limit auto theft in the country.

An amount of $5.9 million will support Canada Border Services Agency officers who carry out container inspections, and $4 million will go to the development of new technologies.

In an interview on the show On 6 to 9, Benoit Charette, columnist and editor in chief of the'Annuel de l'automobile, explained: The vast majority of vehicles are sent for export. Many go to Africa or the Middle East by boat.

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The geographical position of Winnipeg, which is far from ports, could explain, in part, the lower frequency of vehicle thefts compared to other provinces.

With information from Josh Crabb

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