This week’s featured hot ticket items for the weekend and beyond. Brought to you by CHEK Arts & Entertainment producer Steve Grebanier.

A new memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Alberta and Ottawa has struck a nerve with B.C. Leaders and other political opponents.

The first voice of Pender Radio hit the air waves Saturday, launching a brand new radio station, live from an Airstream trailer.

For many, the long weekend marks the first road trip of the season, and what's a trip without a potential beach stop - especially when they're accessible for all travellers.

An investigation is underway after a blaze broke out a home in Langford on Saturday, with crews from Westshore Fire Rescue and the Town of View Royal were dispatched to the scene.

Tseshaht First Nation has issued a water advisory for scheduled water main flushing and cleaning that will impact certain areas next week.

Drake fans who might have felt left out in the cold waiting for new music after the rapper's last solo album in 2023 seem to have warmly embraced his latest drop.

One of the four Canadians isolating in the Island Health region has tested positive for the Andes strain of hantavirus linked to the outbreak on the international cruise ship MV Hondius.

Port Alberni Fire Department Chief Mike Owens says it was a good thing they'd backfilled staff on Friday, after crews responding to a bus fire were dispatched to a chimney fire nearby.

Ferry passengers at the Little River terminal in Comox are asked to adhere to traffic control and signs next week while paving work is underway.

A humpback whale found dead this week off a Danish island has been identified as the animal released two weeks ago in a spectacular and contentious rescue effort, after repeatedly becoming stranded off Germany's Baltic Sea coast, authorities said Saturday.

Agreements on a new bitumen pipeline and carbon pricing scheme is moving a landmark energy deal between Ottawa and Alberta forward.

Mike James doesn't know yet whether his first grandchild will be a boy or girl, but he hopes they will have a chance to see threatened southern mountain caribou during a future visit to his family's cabin near Quesnel Lake. 

Lukas Troni graduated from the University of British Columbia in April 2025. He was putting his geography and environment degree to good use in a job at a Canadian environmental organization when a surprise rejection letter from the federal government forced him to stop working.

A small quarry on Cortes Island, BC, could soon grow to more than four times its current size and local streamkeepers say the province may be considering the expansion without a full picture of nearby creeks, wetlands and fish habitat.

Victoria’s food truck scene just got a whole lot cheesier — in the best possible way.

The TD Bank is closing its branch in downtown Nanaimo in part it says due to safety factors.

Almost two years after a major fire tore through part of Carihi Seconday School in Campbell River, students are still coping with the ongoing impacts of the blaze.

Friends of trailblazing theatre founder Lina de Guevara are making a documentary about the Victoria woman’s life.

The case was thrown out by B.C. provincial court Judge Ted Gouge last April over unreasonable delays in getting to trial, where a Vancouver Island man was charged with sexual assault against one complainant, and assault against another woman. 

A convicted sex offender and a former engineering executive who was found guilty of corruption have been stripped of their appointments to the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour.

WestJet is venturing further north on Vancouver Island, with its first flight landing in Campbell River on Friday.

The man accused in the attempted abduction of a seven-year-old girl at a school in Chilliwack, B.C., this week was already wanted for an alleged armed assault in Vancouver last month, and he has now been charged with both offences.

A tahini product sold in B.C. and Ontario has been recalled due to a possible salmonella contamination.

Port Alberni Fire was called to a bus fire with one person trapped inside on Highway 4 on Friday afternoon.

A Port Alberni resident out for a drive to decompress after a work day leapt into action when he came across a brush fire, which ultimately resulted in another man being charged with arson.

The Capital Regional District (CRD) lifted its blue-green algae advisory for Hamsterly Beach at Elk Lake on Friday. However, an advisory remains for Eagles Beach in Elk Lake and for all of Beaver Lake at Elk/Beaver Lake Regional Park.

British Columbia Premier David Eby says the federal government is rewarding Alberta for "bad behaviour" by agreeing to push for a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast.

Market-goers sipping coffee won't have to carry that empty cup very far, as the Capital Regional District is adding more recycling drop-off locations, keeping you hands free this market season.

Parks Canada is reminding visitors that temporary dog bans are in place along the Long Beach Unit of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, near Tofino, due to wolf encounters.

Shovels could hit the ground on a new West Coast oilsands pipeline as early as September 2027, the federal and Alberta governments said Friday.

Senior and two officers in hospital after driver tears through Vancouver’s West End A man who drove along a sidewalk, hitting trees, vehicles and a senior on a scooter is in custody after two Vancouver police officers used their vehicle to stop the driver. 

The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says proposed changes to major project development rules are "not acceptable" and risk trampling on the rights of First Nations.

Ontario’s ministry of health says it is now testing 10 asymptomatic people with connections to a hantavirus-stricken cruise, a shift from government remarks made earlier this week. 

Mounties in the West Shore continue to search for two suspects connected to a series of frauds that occurred in late 2025 and early 2026.

The federal government says it will pay Lockheed Martin $1.5 billion through an updated contract to maintain and upgrade the Royal Canadian Air Force's Hercules transport aircraft.

Canada’s wine sector is worth more than $10 billion a year and the industry says a few tweaks — like scrapping domestic trade barriers — could add billions of dollars to the national economy. 

Almost 200 former senior Canadian diplomats are calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to impose "robust" sanctions on Israel over deteriorating conditions in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.

Almost everyone appears to agree that the Montreal Canadiens fans are the loudest and rowdiest of any team in the National Hockey League. And the “Habs fever” is only intensifying as the team pursues a second round battle in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Friday they're eyeing a fall 2027 start date for construction of a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast.

Drivers in Nanaimo can expect to see more patrol officers conducting road checks this week as the Island detachment looks to reduce "risky driving behaviours."

The Canadian Coast Guard’s seasonal inshore rescue boat stations are reopening in B.C. this weekend, while another temporary one is scheduled to open in Vancouver during the FIFA World Cup.

A novice driver has been ticketed after a West Shore RCMP officer saw them doing donuts in a gravel parking lot in Langford.

Virtual private network service NordVPN says it could pull out of Canada over the federal government’s proposed lawful access bill.

One driver has died and the other is in the hospital in critical condition after a crash between an SUV and semi-truck on Highway 18 near Lake Cowichan on Thursday.

The Supreme Court of Canada has recognized intimate partner violence as a distinct legal basis for pursuing civil damages.

Police in Vancouver say a black bear was tranquilized, "slept it off, and was released without charges" after it was seen wandering around the city at night. 

Cyclists and pedestrians are being notified of an upcoming closure and detour on the Galloping Goose Trail as BC Hydro continues to work on its submarine cable replacement project in the Gorge area.

Six eateries on Vancouver Island are among the top 100 in Canada for outdoor dining, according to reservation website OpenTable.

A researcher on intimate partner violence is calling for British Columbia to increase funding for forensic nurses, saying there is service gap for survivors in most regions.