This is Vancouver Island

The B.C. government is facing a record-setting deficit, but didn’t announce drastic cuts in this week's budget. While there are some job cuts and tax increases, there’s also spending on health care and education. Our three political insiders have different takes on whether they made the right moves.

Former Green Party MLA and Tsartlip First Nation member Adam Olsen, former BC Liberal and BC United staffer Andrew Reeve, and former NDP cabinet minister Elizabeth Cull discuss with CBC host Gregor Craigie.

The province recently announced new funding to support families of children with disabilities. It means some children who live with conditions such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and fetal alcohol syndrome will get support they’ve never had before - but it also means some families of children with autism will lose that funding. We’ll hear from two Vancouver Island parents with two different perspectives on the news.

Here’s the province’s website with information about the new program, and the transition away from the autism funding.

From Victoria to the Peace, the entire province is mourning the events and loss in Tumbler Ridge. The Province revamped its Throne Speech and start of the session, to support the community.
Former Green Party MLA and Tsartlip First Nation member Adam Olsen, former BC Liberal and BC United staffer Andrew Reeve, and former NDP cabinet minister Elizabeth Cull weigh in on the week's top political stories with CBC host Gregor Craigie.

An independent forestry panel released its report to the B.C. government this week, saying massive change is required to fix the industry in this province. We ask our political panel what they make of the recommendations, plus the latest political moves to deal with the ongoing extortion crisis in Surrey and beyond and just how austere they think the B.C. budget will be when it's released on February 17. Former Green Party MLA and Tsartlip First Nation member Adam Olsen, former BC Liberal and BC United staffer Andrew Reeve, and former NDP cabinet minister Elizabeth Cull weigh in on the week's top political stories with CBC host Gregor Craigie.

Sport fishers in B.C. are raising concerns about proposed changes to the salmon allocation policy for B.C. - which Fisheries and Oceans Canada (aka DFO) uses to determine which who gets priority access to different types of Pacific salmon. A court ruling in 2018 said the federal government had to add First Nations' commercial rights to the list, and the ministry has been working with First Nations, sport, and commercial fishers to review the overall policy - which is nearly 30 years old. Sport fishers say a new discussion paper shows their rights are at risk - but First Nations say that's not the case. We walk you through it.