Député de Hay River Nord

Premier ministre
Ministre de l’Exécutif et des Affaires autochtones

R.J. Simpson a été élu à la 20e Assemblée, représentant la circonscription de Hay River Nord. Le 7 décembre 2023, M. Simpson a été élu premier ministre de la 20e Assemblée législative des Territoires du Nord-Ouest.

M. Simpson a été élu par acclamation à la 19e Assemblée législative et élu pour la première fois à la 18e Assemblée en 2015.

M. Simpson a été élu pour la première fois à la 18e Assemblée législative en 2015. M. Simpson a été président adjoint de la 18e Assemblée législative, vice-président du Comité permanent des opérations gouvernementales et président du Comité spécial sur les questions de transition. M. Simpson a également siégé au Comité permanent des priorités et de la planification, de même qu’au Comité permanent du développement économique et de l’environnement.

M. Simpson a habité à Hay River toute sa vie. Après avoir obtenu son diplôme d’études secondaires à l’école secondaire Diamond Jenness en 1998, il a décroché un baccalauréat ès arts à l’Université MacEwan et un diplôme en droit à la faculté de droit de l’Université de l’Alberta.

M. Simpson a précédemment travaillé pour le gouvernement du Canada, la Northern Transportation Company limitée, la section locale no 51 des Métis, et Maskwa Engineering.

Pendant ses études en droit, M. Simpson a été président de l’association des étudiants en droit autochtones. Il a également siégé au conseil d’administration du Centre d’amitié Soaring Eagle, à Hay River, et donne de son temps au projet d’éducation Canada-Ghana.

Committees

R.J. Simpson
Hay River Nord
Bureau

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Boîte
1320
Bureau de circonscription

62, promenade Woodland, bureau 104
Hay River Nord NT X0E 1G1
Canada

Ministre
Premier ministre des Territoires du Nord-Ouest, Ministère de l’Exécutif et des Affaires autochtones, Ministre de la Justice

Déclarations dans les débats

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Changes, not really changes over the past six months. However, as I mentioned, the gun and gangs strategy is under development, and I think that lessons learned during the pandemic will inform that.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here today to present Bill 15, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2020. The purpose of Bill 15 is to amend various statutes of the Northwest Territories for which minor changes are proposed or errors or inconsistencies have been identified. Each amendment included in the bill had to meet the following criteria:

it must not be controversial;

it must not involve the spending of public funds;

it must not prejudicially affect rights;

it must not create a new offence or subject a new class of persons to an existing offence.

Departments responsible for the various...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The RCMP monitor the calls they get and what type of calls they get. Unfortunately, I do not have the data right now to compare the pandemic times to the pre-pandemic time, but when I have that data, I am as interested as the Member to see what it says. Anecdotally, we have all heard that there has been an increase in illicit drug use across Canada. I think, last time I checked, there was just over $100 million in surpayments that made its way into the territory. Just that amount of money, I would assume that there would be an uptick in all sorts of different sales...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 19, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

The department is working on the materials. I do not have a timeline for training, but the departments that need training are receiving training upon request. Just recently, departmental staff trained with the Department of Infrastructure on how to process these requests. It's an ongoing process.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Corrections Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The ATIPP Act, yes, we were hoping that implementation would be speedier, but there have been significant staffing challenges. We are hoping to bring the act into force in spring of 2021. Recently, we did bring Section 61.1 into force to allow for the access and privacy into force to allow for the access and privacy staff to act as ATIPP coordinators for other public bodies. The staff within the Department of Justice are currently examining the fees, and we hope to have the regulations in place to have those reductions that the Member was speaking of by December.

We...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

I am willing to work with them. There is already a lot of work going on between the Housing Corporation and ECE to try to figure out how can we leverage the journeypersons who work at the Housing Corporation with the LHOs across the territory. That type of work is ongoing. I'm not sure about mandating. I think that we could probably get there by cooperating. We can use a carrot instead of a stick in this situation.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The trades curriculum is based on nationally approved trades standards, so there is not a lot of wiggle room in there to develop our own if we want our journeypersons to be certified across Canada. We do have one trades program that is not national, that is unique to the territory. That is the housing maintainer program. That is one that is currently under review and being updated in a way the Member is referencing. I also want to point out that, with the transformation to a polytechnic university, there are opportunities for research and trades-related research...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

As the committee is aware, we are taking a lessons-learned approach, so we're looking at what have we learned over this last little while and moving forward. What do we need to do with the legislation? In some instances, it was clear. For example, with employment standards, there were some changes that were required in order to allow people to access federal benefits. Those ones are quite easy, but I don't have a comprehensive list of what changes departments have identified to date. That work is being undertaken right now, and at some point in the future, we will have that sort of lessons...