OTTAWA — Auto thefts have continued trending downward across the country and the number of reported thefts over the first half of 2026 was 10 per cent lower than in the same period last year, says a new report from Équité Association. The report by the non-profit anti-fraud group, which collected car theft statistics from January to June of this year, recorded the steepest drop in thefts in Alberta — 15.1 per cent fewer cases than during the first half of 2025. The report, released Tuesday, said auto theft in Canada is trending toward “pre-crisis levels” before 2021, when the number of auto thefts shot up. Bryan Gast, national vice president of intelligence and investigations at Équité Association, said that crisis was caused by the shortage of new vehicles brought on by the pandemic — which encouraged organized crime to ramp up auto thefts to meet the global demand. Gast said the drop in auto thefts is encouraging but luxury vehicles are still being stolen and the profits are still used to fund organized crime. “Stakeholders have to continue doing what we’re doing because if we take our foot off the gas, criminals will see this is a very high reward, low-risk (crime),” Gast said. While the first half of 2025 saw 23,093 vehicles reported stolen, just 20,759 were reported stolen over the first six months of this year, the report found. Atlantic Canada saw the smallest reduction in reported auto thefts — from 910 in the first half of 2025 to 873 reported in this first half of 2026, a decrease of 4.1 per cent. An Angus Reid survey commissioned by Équité Association earlier this year found that, despite the drop in reported auto thefts, the overwhelming majority of Canadians still feel their vehicles’ anti-theft technology isn’t as robust as it should be. The July survey found nearly 80 per cent of Canadians think their vehicles are or could be vulnerable to thieves. The Angus Reid survey suggested 60 per cent of Canadians want government-mandated anti-theft technology in new vehicles. Équité Association released a report in February that said while the number of vehicles stolen in Canada fell sharply in 2025, almost 47,000 thefts were reported that year and more than a third of those vehicles were never recovered. In 2024, the federal government announced a new national action plan to “disrupt, dismantle and prosecute” the organized crime groups behind auto thefts through tougher criminal penalties, more inspections of shipping containers and better intelligence-sharing. The Équité report from February said that while the strategy appeared to be working, Canadians remain vulnerable to car theft rings and a spike in vehicle finance fraud detected at ports in Montreal and Halifax. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2026. Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press
