Ahead of Thursday’s auto theft summit in Ottawa, the Trudeau Liberals have announced $28-million in new money to help fight the export of stolen vehicles.

They also say an estimated 90,000 vehicles are stolen annually in Canada, resulting in about $1-billion in costs to Canadian insurance policy-holders and taxpayers.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has been pushing for solutions to auto thefts which he says have skyrocketed across Ontario and Quebec, but particularly in the GTA.

“We’ve seen a 300-percent increase and we’ve added record numbers of new officers for two years in a row. It’s not a sheer number of new officers that’s going to solve this. We have to deal with the leak in the bucket and that’s going to be my message. The leak right now is that 80-percent of these stolen cars are for the export market,” Brown explained.

According to the feds, auto theft increasingly involves organized crime groups and the proceeds of these crimes are used to fund other illegal activities.

Most stolen vehicles shipped abroad are destined for Africa and the Middle East.