BC Today

B.C. billionaire Jim Pattison is facing backlash over the proposed sale of a warehouse that would be turned into an ICE facility. B.C. Green Party Leader Emily Lowan is calling for a boycott of Pattison's businesses. CBC reporter Yasmine Ghania joins the show to explain the deal and Lowan takes questions about why this matters.

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control is warning about a spike in overdose calls, with a new substance entering the unregulated drug supply. Dr. Alexis Crabtree from the BCCDC joins the program to take questions about how communities should respond to the increase in overdoses.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a suite of affordability measures Monday that he says will help Canadian families with affordability, including a GST rebate. We ask our audience whether this will help them, and what is needed to solve the cost of living and groceries.

B.C. Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon joins the program to explain what was accomplished on the trade mission to India with Prime Minister Mark Carney.

A Port Moody woman highlights the wait times and timely access to cancer care in B.C. after she was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. Consultant Specialists of B.C. president Dr. Robert Carruthers joins the show to take questions and comments on specialist wait times in the province.

BC Today gardening columnist Brian Minter joins the show to take your gardening questions and discuss when the best time is to buy gardening seeds.

With Chinese electric vehicles soon to hit Canadian roads, we look into the whole EV market, the technology and whether it's a good option for car buyers as we move away from vehicles powered by fossil fuels. Electric vehicle expert and EV Revolution Show host Kenneth Bokor joins the show to take listener questions.

The head of B.C.'s extortion task force is walking back comments he made Tuesday that the region is not in an extortion crime-related crisis after Premier David Eby demanded he step up his urgency or step down from his role. Surrey community leader and Swift 1200 AM host Jinny Sims joins the show to take listeners' calls on their concerns about whether extortion is being prioritized by police.

Dine Out Vancouver, Dine Around Victoria and Taste Around B.C. return this week offering set-priced menus for foodies as restaurants struggle. Ross Derrick, owner of Derrick's Steakhouse in Kelowna and inductee into the B.C. Restaurant Hall of Fame, and Margot Baloro, general manager of Wildlight Kitchen and Bar in Vancouver, join the show to take listeners' comments about what keeps them from dining out and what would draw them back into restaurants.

We hear reaction from both sides of the political spectrum following Premier David Eby's announcement that B.C. will revise the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. MLA and B.C. Conservative leadership candidate Peter Milobar joins the show to argue for why DRIPA should be repealed, and Tsartlip First Nation member and former Green Party MLA Adam Olsen explains why the act has been an important step towards reconciliation. We ask listeners to weigh in.

We mark one year since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, and look at the 20 per cent drop in passenger vehicle trips from Canada into the U.S. The CEO of the Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce, Guy Occhiogrosso, and Douglas College political science instructor Jovian Radheshwar join the show to take your questions as we ask whether you're still avoiding travel to the U.S. and what it would take for you to return south of the border.

Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, saying he thinks threats to annex Greenland and aggression towards Canada and other countries are being used by the U.S. and other major powers to upend the existing world order. UBC international law professor Michael Byers joins the show as we ask you what you think the next steps are for Canada amid shifting global dynamics.

The third Monday in January marks Blue Monday, often seen as the most depressing day of the year. But the start to 2026 is not all doom and gloom. CBC reporter Justin McElroy joins the show to talk about data he is gathering that shows that some things are improving. We ask what do you see getting better in your community? What makes you feeling optimistic in 2026?

Students from several B.C. universities rallyed outside the constituency office of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills Minister Jessie Sunner. UBC Alma Mater Society president Riley Huntley and B.C. Federation of Students chairperson Debbie Herrera Lira join the show to take your questions on the current state of things, and what needs to change.

Canada has dropped the tariff rate on Chinese electric vehicles from 100 per cent to 6.1 per cent, opening the door to allow 49,000 cars annually into its domestic market. What does this mean for Canadian vehicle shoppers and for the country as a whole? Clean Energy Canada's executive director Rachel Doran joins the show to take your questions.

New year, new hobby? We ask you to tell us about your new hobby for January 2026. Joining the show is artist Beata Kacy, founder of Soigne art studio, and runner Chris Cole, the co-founder of Metro Vancouver running store Run-Inn. We take calls from audience members to share their new hobbies.

B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne has announced the province won't extend its drug decriminalization pilot, which ends on January 31. The pilot allowed people to possess small amounts of illicit drugs for personal consumption. But after three years, the province says the project hasn't met its goals. We ask listeners how they feel about the end of decriminalization in B.C and how the province should help people struggling with addiction. Former B.C. chief coroner Lisa Lapointe, SFU health researcher Julian Somers and Victoria Police Chief Fiona Wilson join the program to look at what's next to help people struggling with addictions.

The B.C. government says 100,000 skilled trades jobs are coming to the province over the next decade. But who's going to fill them? As artificial intelligence and tariffs cause economic uncertainty in the province, the Construction Foundation of B.C. says "skilled tradespeople will be the last ones voted off the island." We ask listeners if they think 2026 is the year to learn a skilled trade and whether they would consider one as a career. BCIT electrical instructor Anna Lary joins the show.

Police are investigating a new homicide in Surrey — the third suspicious death south of the Fraser in the last five days, all of which investigators suspect are gang-related. We ask listeners how concerned they are with the violence and what they think is drawing people into gangs. UFV criminologist Wade Deisman, and anti-gang educator Kal Dosanjh from KidsPlay Youth Foundation joins the show.

Prime Minister Mark Carney was in Prince Rupert this morning to meet with First Nations leaders to open the dialogue about bringing more resource and nation-building projects to the North Coast. We speak with CBC provincial affairs reporter Katie DeRosa for an update.