The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Equite Association said in a report released Tuesday that Canadian auto insurers lost more than $1-billion last year from stolen vehicles as organized crime rings helped push up car thefts by nearly 50 per cent in Ontario and Quebec. The Globe's Clare O'Hara writes that claims in 2022 were up from $700-million in 2021. Equite, a not-for-profit organization that assists in insurance fraud and crime investigations, expects the losses to continue to climb. It calls the situation a "national crisis." In Ontario, which saw a 48.3-per-cent spike in auto thefts last year, insurers paid more on vehicle theft claims in the first half of 2022 than for all of 2020. Several insurers, such as Aviva Canada, Intact, TD Insurance and Desjardins, are offering incentives to policy holders in certain areas -- or those with high-risk vehicles -- to install tracking devices for free, a cost that can add up to $400 in some cases. Equite vice-president of investigations Bryan Gast says, "Whether stolen vehicles have been renumbered or exported, profit margins are high and worth the low risk of consequence for criminals, so we have to combat this theft collaboratively."