Can Government-funded Technology Solve Canada's Automobile Theft Crisis?

While Canadians are distracted with the 2025 federal election, the Carney Liberal government recently posted this news release on the government's Transport Canada website:

The Minister of Transport and Internal Trade and on-again, off-again Liberal candidate Anita Anand, announced that the Government of Canada would be providing funding of $1.1 million to eight innovative projects that are aimed at reducing the rampant theft of automobiles in Canada. 

Let's look at how significant automobile theft is in Canada.  According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, here are the auto theft statistics from 2018 to 2023:

Here is some background on the issue:

1.) Between 2018 and 2023, auto theft claims costs have increased significantly across the country:

2.) Nationally, auto theft claims costs increased by 254%.

3.) In 2023, auto theft losses amounted to over $1.5 billion, an increase of nearly 20% from 2022 (the year that held the previous record).  The previous four-year national average, between 2018 and 2021, was $556 million.

4.) The crisis is most significant in Ontario, where auto theft claims costs increased by 524% between 2018 and 2023, surpassing $1 billion for the first time in 2023. IBC will be releasing province-specific data on auto theft claims costs in the coming weeks.

So, what is the Carney government's solution to the problem?  Technology and not the kind of technology that will intercept vehicles that are about to be exported from Canada, rather, the type of technology that will be installed in your vehicle.  Here are the eight proposals that are being funded by Canadian taxpayers:

1.) Smartphone-based security using biometrics and proximity detection;

2.) Locking devices using artificial intelligence (AI) monitoring;

3.) A system to replace a vehicle’s starter relay;

4.) Fingerprint authentication;

5.) AI-powered steering wheel locks;

6.) Sensors with gesture recognition;

7.) A smart key fob protector; and

8.) Miniaturized devices that could disable vehicle components should theft be detected.

Now, let's keep in mind that Mark "Climate Change" Carney is a one-trick net zero pony and that should he become Canada's elected Prime Minister, could ultimately impose restrictions on Canadians who insist on driving those nasty internal combustion engine vehicles.  If you look at the technologies that have been selected for further research by the Liberal government, you'll notice that a significant proportion of them have the capability to remotely disable a vehicle.  For instance, should a Climate Change Carney government decide that ICE vehicles are only to be driven certain days of the week or within a certain distance of your residence (think 15 minute city), what would stop them from using some of these technologies to prevent you from driving your vehicle?  Remote vehicle shutdown technology already exists and is used for fleet management, theft prevention and asset tracking and has the following capabilities:

1.) Remote Vehicle Immobilization: Allows users to remotely disable a vehicle's ignition. 

2.) Remote Vehicle Shutdown Technology: Allows law enforcement officers to turn off a vehicle remotely. 

3.) Remote Vehicle Disabling Systems: Can prevent an engine from starting, prevent movement of a vehicle, and to stop or slow an operating vehicle. 

Law enforcement agencies already have remote vehicle shutdown technology as shown here:

Now, let's go back to car theft in Canada.  According to this article in Queen's Park Briefing, Canada inspects less than 1 percent of outgoing containers at Canada's ports.  Is it any wonder that there is an automotive theft problem in Canada?  And somehow, the government thinks that they've made progress by intercepting 1806 stolen vehicles in 2023, roughly 1.6 percent of the 114,863 vehicles that were reported stolen that year.

While the Canadian government is trying to convince the public that it really is concerned about the rampant theft of vehicles in Canada and that the issue can be solved by implementing advanced in-vehicle technologies, in fact, in the hands of an authoritarian government, these technologies could be used to lock Canadians out of their most important mode of transportation and keep them under lockdown in their 15 minute city.  And, as an added benefit for the government, some of these technologies could be used to track Canadians' every move.

Mark Carney and the Globalist's Solution to Canada's Housing Market Woes

Just over a year ago, this gem was published in Canada's Globe and Mail:

Ini this opinion piece, Canada's current unelected globalist Prime Minister weighed in on Canada's housing market and how Canada could fix its housing market woes at the same time as the nation improved its impact on global climate change.  Given that the Liberal Party has now released its housing plan for Canadians, this article is of particular interest.  Let's look at a few quotes.

Carney opens with this:

"Given the two major concerns for today’s young people – housing affordability and climate change – I believe it is now up to Gen X to follow his (former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney) example and get the job done. After all, climate change and housing affordability aren’t just solvable problems; there are also common solutions that apply to both. Politicians at every level of government should take note and take action."

Thanks to a decade of immigration and economic mismanagement under his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, Canadians of all ages are finding that housing, both for rent and for purchase, is completely unaffordable as demand has outstripped supply, leaving a substantial portion of Canadians living in either substandard housing or on the streets.

With that brief introduction, let's look at some background before we go back to Carney's commentary.  Fortunately for all Canadians, Mr. Carney who has an answer to everything that somehow manages to bring climate change into the equation, served on the federal government's Task Force for Housing and Climate:

While his biography has been scrubbed from the task force's current website, a simple search on Archive reveals this:

...and this:

For a self-proclaimed "outsider", he certainly was proximal to the "inside", wasn't he? 

In March 2024, the Task Force released this report:

 

...which provides a blueprint for a program to add 5.8 million new homes by 2030 to restore Canada's housing market by constructing homes that are "affordable, low-carbon and resilient". 

Interestingly, in the report, Mark Carney signs as a member of Canada 2020, the group that believes that Canada needs to expand its population to 100 million people by the year 2100:

One of the key aspects of the Task Force's recommendations is for the federal, provincial and municipal levels of government to enact laws that would increase the density of housing as quoted here:

"Legalize density in existing communities by eliminating unit maximums on all forms of residential housing and abolishing parking minimums on residential, commercial, and industrial properties, by legalizing the construction of CMHC pre-approved housing designs as-of-right, and by adopting ambitious as-of-right density permissions near transit." 

...and by changing bylaws that would repeal certain municipal policies as follows;

"Create a more permissive land use, planning and approvals system, including by repealing policies, zoning or plans that prioritize the preservation of the physical character of the neighbourhood, and by exempting from site plan approval and public consultation all projects that conform to the Official Plan and require only minor variances.  Revise and update zoning laws to allow the establishment of small-scale retail spaces in residential areas, prioritizing locations that are highly accessible by public transit and conveniently walkable for residents, and waive office space requirements in all downtown building conversions and re-developments.

 And, there's your 15 minute city.

So, in other words, laws need to change to allow for the densification of housing in Canada's urban settings.

The Task Force for Housing and Climate released this report in November 2024:

... which outlined four pathways to housing affordability:

1.) Making home ownership and rent more affordable by cutting building costs.

2.) Keeping property taxes and transportation costs in check by allowing more building in convenient locations.

3.) Lowering insurance and maintenance costs by building sturdier homes in safer areas.

4.) Reducing utility bills with energy-efficient homes.

With that background, let's look at Carney's climate-friendly solution to Canada's housing crisis.  Here's a further quote from his commentary in the Globe and Mail, much of which follows the recommendations of the Task Force:

"...we need to build up, rather than out. Focusing housing growth in cities and communities where there is existing infrastructure such as roads, water lines, libraries and community centres is faster, less costly and more climate-friendly. To enable building in these areas, we need to legalize density. It simply must be easier for a homebuilder to turn a 75-year-old bungalow into a cluster of townhouses, or an aging strip mall into a modern and affordable mid-rise apartment complex. To do that, governments should eliminate unit maximums, abolish parking minimums and allow taller buildings and more density near transit lines “as-of-right.”

So, in other words, let's tear down all of those old inefficient and historical single family dwellings and replace them with high density housing which brings to mind this dystopic vision of the urban future from Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One:

To close, let's look back at a bit of Mark Carney's housing history keeping in mind that he has lived in the Rockcliffe neighbourhood since his return from the United Kingdom in 2020 and declared Rockcliffe as his home neighbourhood in his candidacy paperwork:

In 2012, a $1.3 million home in Canada would have been considered very high end and would have been completely unaffordable by the vast majority of Canadians. 

Just for fun, here's a current listing in the Rockcliffe neighbourhood, the second least expensive single family home currently listed for sale:

Does that look like a "climate friendly" 3600 square foot home to you?  I wonder if Carney would mind if his next door neighbours tore down their houses and put up a few semi-detached homes on their properties?

This is another fine example of two globalist narratives:

1.) rules for thee and not for me.

2.) you will own nothing and be happy.

For untold numbers of Canadians, this is what Canada's current housing market looks like:

Instead of focussing on reducing the climate impact of housing, why doesn't Mark Carney concentrate on helping these unfortunate Canadians find permanent homes that protect them from the weather?