R.J. Simpson

Member Hay River North

Premier
Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs
Minister of Justice
Government House Leader

R.J. Simpson was elected to the 20th Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly, representing the constituency of Hay River North. On December 7th, 2023, Mr. Simpson was elected Premier of the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Simpson was formerly acclaimed to the 19th Legislative Assembly and first elected into the 18th Assembly in 2015.

Mr. Simpson was Deputy Speaker of the 18th Assembly, Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations, and the Chair of the Special Committee on Transition Matters. Mr. Simpson was also a member of the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning and the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment.

Mr. Simpson is a lifelong resident of Hay River After graduating from Diamond Jenness Secondary School in 1998 Mr. Simpson went on to obtain a Bachelor of Arts from MacEwan University and a law degree from the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Law.

Mr. Simpson has previously worked with the Government of Canada, Northern Transportation Company Ltd, Métis Nation Local 51, and Maskwa Engineering.

While at law school, Mr. Simpson was the President of the Aboriginal Law Students’ Association. He has also served on the board of the Soaring Eagle Friendship Centre in Hay River and volunteered with the Canada-Ghana Education Project.

Hay River North Electoral District

Committees

Hay River North
Member's Office

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Box
1320
Email
Extension
11120
Constituency Office

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

Phone
Minister
Email
Premier of the Northwest Territories, Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, Minister of Justice, Government House Leader

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 109)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So there was a discussion paper. It was sent out. And this was on the income assistance program of which this would be you know, we were trying to extract a certain segment of that program and design a different program for them. So that was public. There was online surveys that could be done. There were paper surveys. We've reached out to a number of current and former income assistance clients as well as NGOs, Indigenous governments. So that has happened. There is a summary, "what we heard" report in the works, and I expect that to be coming out in the near...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 109)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Unfortunately, I can't give a solid answer. We we would have liked I would have liked to get this done this term. I've said that many times. I can't I can't lie about that. But the fact is that everyone was preoccupied for a couple years and not just the government but Indigenous governments. And when we out to just discuss this topic, it was clear that everyone wanted to be involved. There had to be a significant level of involvement from from teachers, from Indigenous governments, from, you know, different organizations. And so because of that and because of the...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 109)

Thank you. And ECE does support communities, including community governments, so that includes Indigenous governments, in those communities to develop their community labour market development plans. And those contain a lot of information that I know we talked a lot today about why we need information to make decisions. And that also allows us to provide funding based on those decisions.

I will say we're also working with the Housing Corporation to better utilize the trades persons that are employed by the Housing Corporation and the LHOs. This is something that the Minister and I had been...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 109)

Thank you. So there has been some work that has been done already. Each department is pulling together its own information and then the working group will look at that and amalgamate it and the departments have been putting that information together. If they're not already sharing that with each other and starting that work, it will be happening quite soon. There have been some changes that have been made through based on the discussions, so. One of the changes is the communities who have the community labour market development plans will be eligible for multiyear funding through the Small...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 109)

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 48, Arbitration Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 109)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I've said that many times that we're not going to build a new headquarters, we have one, so why bother. However, I will say that we obviously need infrastructure in all the communities. In Yellowknife, you wouldn't know there was a university there was a college here. You know, it's you kind of have to know where it is to know that it even exists. And we have a real housing there's a real housing shortage here as well, and so we need to ensure that there's adequate facilities here. Of course, as the Member points out, Breynat Hall is one of our priorities for...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 109)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have five positions. Three are staffed. I have a text telling me which positions are not staffed but I can't scroll to it at this moment. I'm sorry, Mr. Speaker, but I can get the Member that information. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 109)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so what the facilities plan is you know, it's essentially a capital plan but it's where it's longterm. You need to look at all of the campuses as well as the community learning centres, and we want to make sure that we're starting from a place we want to make sure we have a plan from the getgo and that ensures we want to ensure everything is integrated, everything works together. And I actually just had my first meeting with the contractors who are have been going out and speaking with the communities and Indigenous governments and the college to do this work...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 108)

For.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 108)

In favour.