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Crackdown on Scrap Metal Theft and Damage

An Act to amend the Criminal Code (scrap metal trafficking and essential infrastructure protection)

Summary

  • Creates new Criminal Code offences for trafficking in, or possessing for trafficking, scrap metal obtained by crime, with higher penalties for repeat offenders and aggravating factors when infrastructure is targeted.
  • Defines "scrap metal" (copper, aluminum, brass, bronze, steel, iron and alloys) and "traffic," and establishes a specific offence for scrap dealers who are reckless or wilfully blind to criminal origin.
  • Establishes a new offence of mischief in relation to essential infrastructure components when the perpetrator knows or is reckless that the infrastructure cannot function without the component.
  • Requires courts to treat service interruptions, risks to public safety, or mischief done to facilitate other crimes as aggravating factors at sentencing.
  • Aims to deter theft of metals from utilities, telecoms, railways, pipelines, water/wastewater systems, and safety equipment to protect critical services and public safety.

Builder Assessment

Vote Yes

Protecting essential infrastructure from metal theft and sabotage advances safety, reliability, and economic performance with minimal added administrative burden. While enforcement resourcing and proportionality of penalties warrant scrutiny, the bill supports productivity and investment by reducing costly service disruptions.

  • Strengthens deterrence against theft that endangers public safety and critical services.
  • Supports productivity by reducing outages across power, telecom, rail, and pipelines.
  • Avoids new licensing or reporting regimes; focus remains on criminal accountability for theft and willful blindness.
  • Consider calibrating penalties to target organized crime profits, adding explicit restitution and asset forfeiture tools, and issuing clear guidance to avoid unintended impacts on lawful protest and legitimate recyclers.
  • Enhance coordinated enforcement and data-sharing to disrupt trafficking networks without adding red tape for compliant businesses.

Question Period Cards

Will the government clarify, in law or prosecutorial guidance, that the new mischief offence applies to tampering with physical components and will not be used to criminalize peaceful protest or lawful labour action that does not damage or disable essential infrastructure?

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What additional resources and cross-border tools will be provided to the RCMP and CBSA to detect and disrupt organized scrap metal theft rings and exports, and how will success be measured given the current scale of copper and aluminum theft?

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Given the profits involved in organized metal theft, why are the maximum fines set at $10,000 for indictable offences, and will the government amend the bill to include stronger proceeds-of-crime forfeiture and mandatory restitution to utilities while providing a clear, simple due-diligence safe harbour for legitimate recyclers?

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Principles Analysis

✓

Canada should aim to be the world's most prosperous country.

Protecting critical infrastructure from theft and sabotage reduces outages and repair costs, supporting economic stability and prosperity.

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Promote economic freedom, ambition, and breaking from bureaucratic inertia (reduce red tape).

Creates criminal penalties without adding licensing or reporting requirements; dealers face diligence expectations but no explicit new bureaucracy.

✓

Drive national productivity and global competitiveness.

Deters disruptions to electricity, telecoms, rail, and pipelines, improving uptime and productivity across the economy.

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Grow exports of Canadian products and resources.

May indirectly help export logistics by reducing infrastructure disruptions, but the bill is not export-focused.

✓

Encourage investment, innovation, and resource development.

Stronger protection of essential infrastructure lowers operational risk and signals rule-of-law reliability that supports investment decisions.

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Deliver better public services at lower cost (government efficiency).

Could lower public utility repair costs by deterring theft, but may increase enforcement and court costs; net fiscal effect is unclear.

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Reform taxes to incentivize work, risk-taking, and innovation.

No tax provisions are affected.

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Focus on large-scale prosperity, not incrementalism.

Targets a specific criminal activity with practical benefits but does not constitute a broad structural economic reform.

Did we get the builder vote wrong?

Email [email protected]

C-271

PartyMember of Parliament
StatusOutside the Order of Precedence
Last updatedN/A
TopicsCriminal Justice, Infrastructure
Parliament45