It's hoped that Joyce Murray, MP for Vancouver Quadra, will at least visit Newfoundland and Labrador in her position as federal minister of Fisheries and Oceans/the Canadian Coast Guard. The last DFO minister — former Nova Scotia MP Bernadette Jordan, who lost her seat in the September election — never did make it down here.
B.C. Member of Parliament Joyce Murray was appointed Minister of Fisheries and Oceans/the Canadian Coast Guard on Tuesday (Oct. 26th) during a ceremony in Ottawa.
In terms of Murray's background, she's been in federal cabinet before as minister of Digital Government and President of Treasury Board, and is a skilled politician, having run for the federal Liberal leadership in 2013 against Justin Trudeau.
Murray built a reforestation company in British Columbia over 25 years before serving four years as Environment minister in the B.C. government.
As a provincial Environment minister, she created BC’s first-ever regulations protecting the ocean floor from excessive waste generated by salmon farming operations.
And as a federal MP, she "led the push for our Government’s commitment to setting a fixed-end date for open-net pens."
— MP Joyce Murray, June 2021.
Of course, at the same time Ottawa shuts down at-sea fish farms on Canada's West Coast, the federal government invests in aquaculture off the East Coast in southern Newfoundland.
Which is a head shaker.
Good luck to Minister Murray!
IMMEDIATE PRIORTIES FOR NL
SEA-NL was asked today by the media what should be an immediate priority for NL from the new DFO minister.
The answer is obvious (and life or death) — improved search and rescue services for Labrador.
The other priority is ensuring that NL's inshore fleet is the primary beneficiary of all stocks in adjacent waters — starting with redfish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
NLERS IN CABINET
It was hoped that NL MP Seamus O'Regan would tackle Fisheries and Oceans, but he was appointed Labour minister.
In unexpected news, MP Gudie Hutchings also got a cabinet post (two from NL is a first since 1979), and will serve as minister of Rural and Economic Development.
Congratulations to both, and best of luck.
It's been said before, and I'll say it again, no matter what federal cabinet post a NL MP holds, they're always responsible for fish.
Onwards and upwards.
Ryan Cleary,
SEA-NL
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