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 153)

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child Day Care Act, be read for the third time. And, Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 153)

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that Bill 81, An Act to Amend the Education Act, No. 2, be read for the second time.

The bill amends the Education Act to update the preamble to

Recognize the vital role that Indigenous peoples and Indigenous governments play in achieving quality and excellence in education;

Clarify a number of defined terms;

Update the procedural requirements to be followed when modifying a school program for a student;

Allow the Minister to access student records for the purposes of evaluating a school program or monitoring student...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 153)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And like my colleagues, a lot of what I wanted to say has already been said so I won't repeat it. But I do want to highlight some of the changes that have happened here at the Legislative Assembly since Mr. Mercer took the helm, and I've seen them even in my seven years here; I've seen a number of changes. And I will say that of course the Speaker gets all the credit for the improvements that happen at the Legislative Assembly, and I know Mr. Mercer wouldn't have it any other way. He doesn't want to take any of that credit, but I believe he has a big hand in bringing...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 153)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And just to clarify what I said earlier, education is in the purview of the province and the territories and when there is a sort of this constitutional split of responsibilities, we try to stick as closely as we can do that split and so the provinces and territories are generally responsible to billion education infrastructure. That being said, as I stated earlier in my comments to the Member from Monfwi, if there's an Indigenous group that feels like these types of initiatives are part of reconciliation, then that's something we can work on. So I'd be happy to work...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 153)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so as the House is aware, we have committed to working with the Tlicho government on procuring a new school for Behchoko. The federal government does not billion schools generally and so in our discussions with the Tlicho government, it's been determined that they would be the best to approach the federal government. And we are fully supporting them once they do that. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 153)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we just considered this bill yesterday in Committee of the Whole. Some people may recall that there were motions moved at that point. It was a dead heat, and there was no changes to the bill as we had a couple of ties.

Since that time, I've spoken to the department, I've spoken to the chair of the Standing Committee on Social Development, and I considered how could we incorporate some of those changes that the Members would like to see, some of the concerns that the Members have been expressing, into the bill so we can find a clause that we can all agree...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 152)

Mr. Speaker, the moment we've all been waiting for. I wish to present to the House Bill 81, An Act to Amend the Education Act, No. 2, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 152)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize one of the new Aurora College board members Stephanie Irlbacher Fox. Thank you for joining us. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 152)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I agree it's a terrible situation. There's some individuals who are suffering. And if you're on income assistance, you're not making a bunch of money to begin with and so I get the concerns. And we took a more compassionate approach than other jurisdictions by exempting certain amounts, but at this point I can't commit to exempting these amounts now. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 152)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have those numbers on hand. But I can say that what the Member is speaking about is a few years ago, the Government of Canada introduced a number of different benefits for Canadians to help them get through the worst days of the pandemic. We as a department exempted CERB payments so those were not counted against income assistance applications; however, the later benefits were not exempted. And so clients who received those benefits, all they needed to do was declare that they received those. So even just verbally telling the client service officer that they...