The Ford government is moving ahead with new legislation aimed at stamping out auto theft, while also calling on the federal government to make further reforms to the bail system to keep repeat offenders behind bars.
The push comes only days into the fall sitting of the Ontario legislature and ahead of what's widely expected to be an early election call next spring.
While the governing PCs say Ottawa needs to get tough on car thieves and other criminals, the federal Liberals say auto theft in Ontario is on the decline and accused the province of failing to make needed investments in its criminal justice system to take advantage of bail reforms that went into force earlier this year.