Is BC seriously paying $165 for one cup of coffee?
Good morning from the Okanagan — the lake is calm, the vines are growing, and we have things to discuss.
Okay, but here's the thing nobody talks about: you know how much we love our coffee in Kelowna. Seriously, try getting a spot at that little place on Bernard Avenue on a Saturday morning during farmers' market season. It's a sport. So when I saw this story about the B.C. government's coffee truck promotion in Seattle costing taxpayers *one hundred and sixty-five dollars a cup*, my jaw just about hit the floor of my kitchen. $165! For one cup of coffee! You could buy a whole case of that amazing $18 rosé from Summerland for that, and still have change left over for a scone at the Guisachan Heritage Park cafe.
## Seriously, What Was This?
This wasn't some fancy single-origin pour-over, either. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation found out through a Freedom of Information request that our provincial government spent $165 a cup on a two-day coffee truck promotion in Seattle last June. The idea was apparently to promote B.C. tourism. I mean, I get it, we want people to come visit our beautiful province, maybe bike the Kettle Valley Rail Trail or hit Big White in the winter. But a coffee truck? At that price? It just feels… out of touch. We're talking about a province where we're constantly trying to figure out how to stretch our dollars for essentials, and then this?
* The promotion happened in Seattle in June 2025 (yes, *next* June, this info is from a future-dated FOI request, which is a whole other layer of weird). * It was a two-day event. * The goal was to promote B.C. tourism to U.S. residents. * The Canadian Taxpayers Federation submitted an FOI request to get these numbers.
For us here in Kelowna, where the smoke season is becoming a fifth season and we're always bracing for what the next summer brings, seeing this kind of spending just feels a bit off. We're trying to figure out if we can survive being discovered, and this is the kind of 'discovery' effort happening? It's the kind of thing that makes you wonder where the real priorities are.
Nina Papadimitriou, MiTL Sports Desk, Kelowna.
The crew on the Morning Wire show is definitely talking about this one – you can catch them live at mornings.live.