Federal Transport Minister Anita Anand calls for a meeting with her provincial counterpart to address the growing problem of re-Vinning and fraudulent vehicle registrations.

In a letter to Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria on Saturday, Anand wrote that he wants all provinces and territories to prioritize the issue to further prevent car theft across the country.

Re-Vinning is when criminals illegally fabricate a car’s Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) to hide that it has been stolen, allowing them to register and sell it. Because of the lack of interprovincial data exchangeoffenders can register a vehicle with the same VIN as a vehicle registered in another province.

“Law enforcement agencies across the country are reporting that recovery records and fraud, pervasive problems that facilitate the sale and distribution of stolen vehicles, are on the rise,” Anand wrote in the letter.

“While the longstanding interprovincial record exchange can help detect the resale of vehicles, all provinces and territories must fully participate in this system to close the loophole that is being exploited by criminals to resell stolen vehicles in Canada.”

According to the government, the Interprovincial Record Exchange (IRE) is a tool used for the “efficient exchange” of driver’s license and vehicle information between jurisdictions.

Earlier this year, the federal government and other stakeholders developed the National Action Plan to Combat Car Theft and some of them are investments to enable full data exchange via IRE.

In May, Pablo Rodriguez, the former federal minister of transportation, wrote a letter to his provincial and territorial counterparts to step up their approach to the problem.

Anand, in her letter on Saturday, asked Sarkaria to respond to Rodriguez’s letter.

“I appreciate your response to my predecessor, who committed to working together on this issue. I would like to discuss this important matter with you and hear what your province is doing in more detail,” she wrote, adding that her team will reach out and coordinate a meeting.

Anand pointed out in his letter that the federal car theft action plan has produced encouraging results, with national car theft trends declining in the first half of the year.

Border officials have also intercepted more than 1,900 stolen vehicles this year, nearly a third in the Greater Toronto Area.

“Car theft is a national crisis that affects thousands of Canadian households each year. As our government has reiterated, all relevant parties must be at the table to combat this problem,” the transport minister wrote.

“We’ve seen positive results, but we must continue to be vigilant and take strong action together to keep Canadians safe and protect our communities.”

CP24 has contacted Minister Sarkaria for comment.

The Ontario government announced in May that it is investing $51 million in new measures to help police crack down on car theft criminals. The province also said it had purchased five new police helicopters to prevent violent carjackings.