Member Hay River North

Premier
Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs

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

R.J. Simpson
Hay River North
Member's Office

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Box
1320
Constituency Office

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

Minister
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 136)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of the reason is to ensure that there is some stability, some consistency, and some certainty for education bodies. They will know what their budget will be in the next year based on the numbers from the current year. As well, we need to line up with the GNWT fiscal year. So these numbers need to get into this budget, and that process is largely finalized by December. So those are the primary reasons. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 136)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would need a bit more description about what the Member is referring to by "the Birchwood Apartment situation." Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 136)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The last major amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act were in 2015. There have been amendments in 2017, 2018, and 2019. But since March, the department has been focusing on getting its current initiatives over the finish line. This is really the busiest time of the year, and we're trying to get everything wrapped up so there has not been work on the Residential Tenancies Act; however, the rental officer, in the annual reports, has been putting forward recommendations and so, you know, this is a live issue that the Member is talking about. So it will be considered...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 136)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And those are the same questions that I am asking. Sometimes drug houses might be fortified and so perhaps there is a way through existing legislation to enter those premises. The Residential Tenancies Act does have provisions which allows for evictions to occur when residents are carrying on illegal activities but that's initiated by the landlord, not by the RCMP. So there are some options available but not what the Member is looking for, but we are exploring those. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 136)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the RCMP has seized money or other property under the Criminal Code or Controlled Drugs and Substances Act or other applicable federal legislation, there's a number of options available to the court with respect to that seized property. If there's been a conviction for any offences for which the accused has been charged, the Crown may make an application to have the court consider whether or not the seized property is related to the offence for which the conviction arose. If the court finds that the seized property is related to the offence, the court may order the...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 135)

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Aurora College Annual Report 20212022. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 135)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, you know, I thought I had dealt with this issue a few years ago. I spent a lot of time personally meeting with the chair of the CSFTNO about the regulations. And we settled on some updated regulations that, you know, are by no means perfect but seemed to address a lot of the outstanding issues that we were facing, both the school board and the GNWT. Since we recently received those census numbers, we can now look at how to move forward in terms of the regulations, the capacity, and all of those types of questions. We have not had time to do that given how recently...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 135)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And in a way, these are champagne problems as they say. We have been working on increasing immigration and so we've seen those numbers go up. As well earlier in this government, we introduced some more liberal regulations, expanding access to French first language education to nonrights holders so this is sort of a situation of our own making. And in terms of the conversations about facilities for CSFTNO, I wouldn't say they've started, I would say they've never ended. They've been ongoing for many, many years.

The way that our process works is that each year school...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 135)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So when I spoke to the Minister, I said that there needs to be consultation; people need to come to the territory and they need to talk to people on the ground, not just to us and Indigenous governments, but to the hunters, the residents, who are going to impacted by this. So I have made that strong recommendation to the Minister.

First, the Department of Justice of the Northwest Territories is not going to go out and do consultation on a federal bill. That's the fed's job. But I think that they got the message. They're aware of the push back; that's why they removed the...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 135)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So personally I have reviewed the draft bill. It's very similar to other bills across the country the Member named a number of jurisdictions that have this. And as I've already stated, I won't repeat myself, but we are turning our minds to this. We know we have to do something, and we need to take action. Thank you.