Auto theft claims costs reached a whopping $371.8 million in Toronto in 2023, making the city the costliest in Ontario when it comes to the claims cost of replacing stolen vehicles, newly released data shows.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) released on Tuesday a list of the top 10 costliest cities in Ontario for auto theft claims last year. Brampton, Mississauga, Vaughan, Markham and Ottawa followed Toronto on the list.
According to the bureau, auto theft claims costs surpassed $1 billion for the first time in Ontario last year. The bureau said auto theft claims costs have surged by 524 per cent in Ontario and by 561 per cent in Toronto since 2018.
“Ontario is seeing an alarming increase in auto theft claims and auto theft claims costs,” Amanda Dean, vice-president, Ontario and Atlantic, for IBC, said in a news release on Tuesday.
“As IBC’s numbers reveal, the Greater Toronto Area has been hit particularly hard by the auto theft crisis. These claims costs speak to the growing severity of the auto theft crisis in Ontario — a crisis that is having a material impact on auto insurance premiums, to say nothing of the concern and trauma it is causing Ontarians.”
Between 2018 and 2023, the incidence of people making insurance claims due to theft of their vehicles increased by 165 per cent in Ontario, the release said. Between 2022 and 2023, the increase in auto theft claims was 21 per cent, while and the increase for auto theft claims costs was 32 per cent.
According to the data, the largest cities in Ontario tend to have the highest claims costs. However, the release said several mid-sized cities have experienced “staggering” increases in the theft claims costs, including Whitby, Pickering, Milton and Markham.
In Whitby, for example, auto theft claims costs have increased 2269 per cent between 2018 and 2023. Last year, auto theft claims costs were $12.14 million in Whitby, while in 2018, they were $512,751.
Vehicle theft ‘national emergency,’ bureau says
“Auto theft is a national emergency,” Dean said in the release.
“We applaud the Ontario government for the significant investments it has made to help mitigate the crisis. However, more must be done to tighten the vehicle registration process to make it harder for criminals to re-VIN and sell stolen vehicles to unsuspecting Ontarians.”
Dean said the bureau urges the provincial government and municipalities to work with the federal government to implement recommendations in the national action plan on combating auto theft, given that claims are “skyrocketing” in Ontario.
“This initiative must include measures that make it more difficult to transport and export stolen cars,” Dean added.
The bureau is a national industry association that represents Canada’s private home, auto and business insurers.