Surrey council directed city staff on Monday to ask the provincial government to bring forward legislation to 鈥渃ombat鈥� catalytic converter theft throughout B.C.

Mayor Brenda Locke brought the motion forward on Sept. 11 and council voted in support of it on Oct. 16.

The mayor noted there is 鈥渃urrently an absence of robust province-wide regulations to address the problem鈥� and called for a 鈥渓egislative framework鈥� to deal with it.

In April council tweaked the city鈥檚 Scrap Metal Dealer Regulation Bylaw, Business License Bylaw and Surrey Municipal Ticket Information Utilization Bylaw and Surrey Bylaw Notice Enforcement Bylaw in an effort to curb local thefts. Among actions taken were to raise the maximum fines under the scrap metal bylaw to $50,000 from $10,000.

Surrey鈥檚 plan was conceived in January, when catalytic converter theft was significantly on the rise and made up almost 45 per cent of thefts from autos in this city.

Coun. Doug Elford told council he 鈥減ersonally chased a guy down the street stealing a catalytic converter鈥� from his neighbour. 鈥淚t can be done easily on bikes, very quick and very painful to the victims so I fully support this motion, but knowing how the Province works it may sort of drag this out and I鈥檓 wondering if we have done something or we can do something within our own bylaws to assist, just expedite things.鈥�

Acting city manager Rob Costanzo replied that city bylaws were amended earlier in the year to 鈥渁ddress the situation.

鈥淭he issue beyond our municipal borders would require the municipalities to enact similar bylaws which could be very difficult given the vast number of municipalities beyond Surrey,鈥� Costanzo said. 鈥淪o the concern is you can steal a catalytic converter in Surrey and sell it in Langley, for example, so the purpose of this motion would be for the Province to enact its own legislation to ensure it鈥檚 aligned with our bylaw that would allow us to more readily move forward and ensure that we can prevent this sort of issue from arising across B.C., not just solely in Surrey.鈥�

Coun. Linda Annis said she鈥檚 hearing from 鈥渟everal reputable recyclers鈥� who are 鈥渞unning into difficulties鈥� with Surrey鈥檚 bylaw as currently written 鈥渂ecause they鈥檙e getting massive truckloads of scrap that may have a catalytic converter or two in the mix and they鈥檙e losing a lot of business because those trucks are being re-diverted to other jurisdictions.

鈥淚 know there鈥檚 several major recyclers here in Surrey that are quite concerned about that so the sooner we can encourage the provincial government to get this fixed the better it would be.鈥�