B.C. Premier John Horgan looks on as Finance Minister Carole James answers a question during a media scrum following a meeting with federal ministers at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre during day two of the Liberal cabinet retreat in Nanaimo, B.C., on Wednesday, August 22, 2018. ritish Columbia maintained its budget surplus in the last fiscal year even though it boosted spending on government programs by almost $3 billion and covered significant expenses from disastrous wildfires in 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito