Joyce Murray

Joyce Murray MP
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Vancouver Quadra
Incumbent
Assumed office March 31, 2008
Preceded by	Stephen Owen
MLA for New Westminster
In office 2001–2005
Preceded by	Graeme Bowbrick
Succeeded by	Chuck Puchmayr
Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection of British Columbia
In office June 5, 2001 – January 26, 2004
Premier	Gordon Campbell
Preceded by	Ian Waddell
Succeeded by	Bill Barisoff
Minister of Management Services of British Columbia
In office January 26, 2004 – June 16, 2005
Premier	Gordon Campbell
Personal details
Born	July 11, 1954 (1954-07-11) Schweizer-Reneke, South Africa
Political party	Liberal Party of Canada
Other political affiliations	British Columbia Liberal Party
Spouse(s)	Dirk Brinkman
Residence	Vancouver, British Columbia
Profession	policy analyst, sustainability consultant, reforestation manager

Joyce Murray (born July 11, 1954) is a Canadian politician. She currently represents the electoral district of Vancouver Quadra as a Liberal Member of the Canadian House of Commons, and was previously a BC Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 2001 to 2005.

Background

Ms Murray graduated from Lord Byng Secondary School in Vancouver, did her undergraduate studies in Simon Fraser University in the early seventies, studying linguistics, archeology and completing pre-med. In 1990 she returned to SFU's EMBA program and graduated with the Dean's medal in 1992.

She is the daughter of Charlotte Coe Murray who is a pioneer architect in designing and building affordable community and senior housing. Joyce Murray's father, Gordon Murray, was the founder of Murray & Associates Surveying and Northwest Hydrographics Underwater Surveying.

Ms. Murray co-founded Brinkman & Associates Reforestation Ltd with her husband Dirk Brinkman in the seventies. Together they grew reforestation operations across Canada and down into Central America and diversified into ecosystem restoration, forest management and mixed species tropical plantation investment. In 2010, the company planted its billionth tree.

She and Dirk have three grown children, Baba Brinkman, Erik Brinkman and Dawn Brinkman.

Career in provincial politics

First elected to the provincial legislature in the 2001 provincial election, she was the first Liberal in 49 years to be elected to the electoral district of New Westminster. She served in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia as a cabinet minister from 2001 to 2005, serving as Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection to January 2004 and as Minister of Management Services until June 2005.

As Minister of Water, Land, and Air Protection, she worked with environmental advocates, tourism associations and regional organizations to complete the protection of Spruce Lake Park, and also raised provincial fees for industrial and municipal waste discharges by 48 per cent. In the first sitting of the new cabinet, also the first televised, she secured $25 million to co-establish the Southern Gulf Islands National Park to complement funding from the federal Minister of the Environment, David Anderson.

Murray implemented First Nations co-management of provincial parks both along the coast of British Columbia and in its northern interior, and secured $18 million to purchase and protect Burns Bog, the largest domed bog in North America.

Murray also introduced the first comprehensive framework strategy for total product stewardship for recycling for all products in British Columbia. Product stewardship regulations required producers to assume responsibility for removing their products from the waste stream. She convened the thirteen oil producers in the province and required that they develop a cooperative solution to recycle all of the waste oil, plastic (from containers) and steel wool from oil filters. At that time over 22 million litres of oil was entering the GVRD waste stream annually. She brought the electronics industry under the product stewardship framework to develop solutions for all electronics waste. Ministries of Environment from other provinces have studied this legislation and introduced similar regulations.

As the president of the Canadian Ministers of the Environment in 2003, Murray lead an initiative to put children's health and the environment onto the national CCME agenda.

She initiated the first ground water protection regulation and the first integrated pest management legislation in British Columbia. During her tenure the Ministry of the Environment secured increased power to regulate pollution, and was freed of the previous requirement during compliance and enforcement, to secure the cooperation of any other ministries involved.

As a Minister, Murray also encouraged innovation throughout the organization. Under her leadership, the Ministry was able to maintain high environmental standards, improve services to clients and reduce costs because she advocated for and achieved changes to provincial environmental protection legislation and regulations that allowed for the application of risk-based approaches and increased reliance on industry and other partners. In the case of contaminated sites, for example, external experts were authorized to handle all low risk contaminated sites, leaving ministry staff to focus on higher risk sites. The need for these changes had been recognized in the ministry and the community for a long time. She had the commitment and stamina to convince her Cabinet colleagues that the time had come to implement changes that would allow continued protection for the environment in an increasingly complicated regulatory environment where there was pressure to significantly reduce environmental standards and enforcement.

She also encouraged cultural change in the organization as well and her support for new approaches to doing business helped staff build a high trust, high performing team committed to achieving critical goals. Working with an Advisory Group made up of industry, government and academics, Murray was instrumental in developing the first comprehensive climate change action plan for British Columbia (although it was not actually implemented until after 2005, the major groundwork was achieved through this group). Seeking to build and encourage partnerships across borders, the Ministry collaborated with jurisdictions that share stewardship of an airshed or watershed on joint initiatives designed to improve environmental quality while allowing for population growth and economic development, e.g. Georgia Basin/Puget Sound International Airshed Strategy, a multi-agency, Canada-US effort to address air pollution and its impacts in this airshed, which includes Vancouver and Seattle.

She was defeated by Chuck Puchmayr in the 2005 election.

Federal politics

Murray subsequently stood as the federal Liberal candidate in New Westminster—Coquitlam in the 2006 federal election, but was not elected. She was nominated as the federal Liberal candidate in Vancouver Quadra for the by-election held on March 17, 2008, following the resignation of Stephen Owen, and successfully retained the riding for the Liberals on by-election night, defeating Conservative candidate Deborah Meredith by 151 votes.

During this term she sat on the Standing Parliamentary Committee on International Trade and visited Colombia and Panama to review proposed Free Trade Agreements. She was Vice-Chair the Liberal Caucus Committee on Environmental Sustainability. She presented her first private members bill, Bill C-572, in June 2008, proposing to exempt bikes (including electric bikes) and bike accessories, repairs and safety training from GST. As a known advocate for complementary medicine she worked to stop Bill C51 from going forward.

Joyce Murray was re-elected in the general election on October 14, 2008 defeating Conservative candidate Deborah Meredith again, this time with a larger margin of 5000 votes. She was appointed as the Critic for Democratic Reform in November, 2008. In February 2009 she was elected by her MP colleagues to co-chair of the Parliamentary Committee On Health, and was appointed by Michael Ignatieff as the Official Liaison to the Government of British Columbia for the Liberal Party.

Leading up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Michael Ignatieff appointed Ms. Murray as the Liberal Critic for Amateur Sport.

Joyce currently sits on the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Fisheries and Oceans and the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development and is proud to remain the BC Intergovernmental Affairs Liaison and the Amateur Sports Critic in the Liberal Caucus. As an active member of the Canada-China Legislative Association, Joyce is steadfast in helping to strengthen Canada’s ties with China and the Asia-Pacific, as well as increasing investment in local small and medium size businesses. In February 2011 Joyce Murray tabled the private members Bill C606, An Act to amend the Canada Shipping Act, 2001 (prohibition against the transportation of oil by oil tankers on Canada's Pacific North Coast).

External links

• Joyce Murray
• Liberal Party of Canada Website
• Political Biography from the Library of Parliament