Protecting Canada's Essential Infrastructure Metals Act

Summary#

• Bill C-271 changes Canada’s Criminal Code to crack down on stolen scrap metal and to protect key services like power, phones, water, rail, and pipelines. It creates new crimes for trafficking in stolen scrap metal and for damaging or removing parts needed for essential infrastructure to work.

• It sets penalties that can include fines and jail time, with tougher sentences when critical systems are involved.

• Updates the meaning of “traffic” to include selling, giving, transporting, importing or exporting, delivering, or offering to do any of these.

• Makes it a crime to traffic or to possess for trafficking scrap metal when you know it was obtained by crime.

• Adds a specific offence for scrap metal dealers who are reckless or willfully blind (ignore clear signs) about whether metal was stolen.

• Defines “scrap metal” to include copper, aluminum, brass, bronze, steel, or iron (and related alloys) that are dismantled, altered, or prepared for recycling or resale.

• Creates a mischief offence for damaging, removing, or tampering with a physical part of essential infrastructure when you know, or are reckless about, whether it is needed for the system to function.

• Requires judges to treat as aggravating (making the sentence harsher) cases that involve metal taken from public or private infrastructure, cause service interruptions, endanger the public, or help another crime like theft or trafficking.

What it means for you#

• General public

  • Could help reduce theft of copper wire and other metals from power, telecom, rail, water, and safety systems, which can mean fewer outages and safer communities.
  • Harsher penalties aim to deter crimes that cut off essential services or put people at risk.

• Property owners, businesses, farms, and construction sites

  • Stronger tools against people who steal metal from buildings, equipment, and job sites.
  • If stolen metal came from infrastructure or safety systems, courts must consider tougher sentences.

• Utilities, telecoms, railways, pipelines, and municipalities

  • Added protection for critical parts like cables, pipes, signals, and safety equipment.
  • Judges must treat service interruptions and public danger as aggravating factors at sentencing.

• Scrap metal dealers and recyclers

  • New offence if you trade in scrap metal while being reckless or willfully blind about whether it is stolen, with possible fines and jail time.
  • The bill does not set new paperwork rules, but it raises legal risk for accepting suspicious metal.

• People who collect and sell scrap legally

  • It remains legal to sell scrap you lawfully own.
  • The new trafficking offence targets those who know metal is stolen; dealers face penalties if they ignore warning signs.

Expenses#

No publicly available information.

Proponents' View#

• Will help stop copper and other metal thefts that cut power, phones, internet, and water service, and raise repair costs.
• Targets the demand side by going after traffickers and dealers who move stolen metal, not just the person who steals it.
• Clear penalties and listed aggravating factors give courts stronger tools to protect public safety.
• Covers cross‑border movement and offers to sell, which supporters say closes loopholes.

Opponents' View#

• The Criminal Code already bans possessing and trafficking property obtained by crime and damaging property; this could be duplicative rather than new.
• Terms like “reckless” and “willfully blind” may be vague and could punish honest dealers who make mistakes, chilling legitimate recycling.
• Penalties of up to 10 years may be harsh compared with the value of typical scrap; fines and jail terms may be out of balance.
• May not address root causes of theft (like poverty or addiction) and, without clear tracking or ID rules, might not change behavior.
• Some worry enforcement could fall unevenly on low‑income people who collect scrap for income.