The Jas Johal Show: Oct. 6, 2026

Hey, thanks for listening to the Jazz Joe Hall Show podcast. Today on the pod, Ottawa has well over a billion dollars on the table for food processing. BC has finally lined up to compete for it. Then an election got called and one signature never happened. Who pays for that? Plus, don't worry about Jimmy, says David Eby. He'll land on his feet. Coming up, why the premier picked the wrong billionaire, the wrong fight in the wrong tax bracket. Plus, you've seen Vancouver in hundreds of movies. You just didn't know it. Coming up, the stolen guns, broken bones, and bruised egos behind Hollywood North. That's all next on the Jazz Joe Hall Show podcast. Let's begin the show today and talk food. Back in July, the provincial government proposed loosening B.C.' 's 50-50 rule, which says food processed on farmland has to come at least half from that same farm. Now, processors say the rule shuts plants down in the off-season, leaves no room to adjust after a bad harvest, and makes real supply chains vulnerable. when it comes to food, nearly impossible. Now, the fix, we were told, was ready. All it needed was a cabinet signature, and that never came because of the NDP government's mad rush to call an election. What this really means is that BC is sitting on the sidelines while Ottawa hands out $350 million for food manufacturing and and a billion dollars for food terminals. The window closes for those federal dollars in about eight weeks. Now, we've been here before in regards to food security and whether or not companies feel comfortable in building food processing plants here. McCain Foods passed on BC and opened a $600 million plant in Alberta just a couple of years ago. Well, joining me now to talk about this issue is James Donaldson, CEO of BC Food and Beverage. James, thank you so much for your time today.

Thanks for having me on again, Jeff.

Well, for people who are listening right now who've never heard of the 50-50 rule, can you explain what it actually does to a food processor in this province at this moment?

Sure, yeah. Yeah, it's a good place to start, I think. The 50% rule was put into effect within the Agricultural Land Reserve, and essentially... Food processing is a permitted use within the ALR, but the rule allows, it essentially restricts anybody processing to use for 50% or more of their inputs to come from on that location. So essentially, if you're a 10-acre blueberry farm, you could put a blueberry facility, a blueberry jam facility on that location, but half the inputs had to come from your farm. So what that means is, you know, it limits any ability for anyone to scale their business beyond that, because, of course, you know, you want to be able to draw inputs from other places. Of course, McCain's is, you know, they're a huge company. So they're an extreme example that you opened with. But, you know, for a lot of companies, they'll need, you know, they need 52 weeks of supply as well. So if you 50 percent of your inputs from a seasonal product on location, it really prevents any level of scale for processing. And this is the time when we need more food processing than ever, when the federal government recognizes that with their new