The province is looking to the public for ideas to combat rampant theft of catalytic converters.
Often stolen from under parked cars in the middle of the night, the converters are part of the vehicles’ pollution control systems and contain valuable rare metals.
In 2017 ICBC paid out 89 claims for catalytic converter theft. In 2021, there were nearly 2,000 claims, worth more than $4 million.
In 2022 BC required metal recyclers to report all converter purchases, but the problem isn’t going away.
“Solving the issue requires cooperation and collaboration between the Province, law enforcement, municipal governments, industry, and the public,” says the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General in the survey preamble.
New options being considered are requiring mobile metal dealers to report purchases, a program to etch converters with the vehicle’s VIN, an electronic reporting system, and requiring all seller information to also be reported to police.
Visit the province’s website to participate in the survey.
