Justice committee  Again, I'll have to be specific to Ontario and a recent investigation that we just concluded, Project X5. There's definitely a tiered system in place as far as organization is concerned. There are the thieves who steal the car and receive money, like $1,000 for a high-end sport utility vehicle.

Justice committee  Revinning is basically identity theft for a vehicle. It has become very simplified with the use of the Internet, but it's basically stealing the identity of a legitimate vehicle, which may be in Texas, for example, and applying it to a vehicle that you've stolen. So you take the vehicle identification number from the legitimate vehicle in another jurisdiction and you apply it to the vehicle you've stolen.

Justice committee  A lot of them are not getting caught. There is a problem. CBSA are addressing it. There is an understanding that the Customs Act, or the legislation governing their officers, precludes their sharing information with the police. A lot of times we're not notified. I would say the majority of the time we're not notified.

Justice committee  It was from me, and it was in reference to the amateur auto thieves in Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Their average age is 14, while our average age in Ontario is 34.

Justice committee  If I can respond, there are two types of auto theft, and I think we have to clarify that. There is the amateur auto theft, which is opportunistic, and then there's the professional auto theft, which is organized crime. Public awareness may help target hardening, to prevent against the opportunistic youth or amateur auto thief, but in the organized crime world there is a market for stolen vehicles and they are very target-specific on makes and models.

Justice committee  Percentage-wise, it varies so much from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. I can quote B.C. because I've recently had some conversations with the RCMP about Operation Impact. About 90% of their vehicles that are stolen are recovered. That's attributed to your amateur auto theft. They're not stealing the cars for the cars themselves; they're stealing them for transportation or things of that nature.

Justice committee  Good morning, and thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm attending today representing the Ontario Provincial Police as a designate for Commissioner Julian Fantino. In addition, I'm attending as a unit commander of the OPP provincial auto theft team, which is under our organized crime section of the investigation bureau.