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 101)

Thank you. And, you know, with recent events in the world's biggest natural gas producer, perhaps there will be an increase in oil and gas activity in the territory. If that's the case, then we'll have to see what the operating budget would need to be under those circumstances. But the OROGO is funded from the general coffers of the GNWT so it goes into the general coffers of the GNWT. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 101)

Thank you. So I'm not aware of any plans to increase it at this point. But it is a very I think it's a successful program. I like programs like this where they're communitydriven and, you know, local communities or businesses have an idea on how to employ people and we give them money and they employ people, and that money flows directly into their pockets. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 101)

Thank you. And just to correct the record, I never said integrated services cannot be put into communities outside of Yellowknife. I said integrated services can be put into communities outside of Yellowknife, and that's exactly what we're working on.

The integrated case management program is a Yellowknifebased program designed for Yellowknife. And the idea of case management is you have a clientele or an integrated service delivery is you have a clientele, and you cater to them what are their needs? And so I can't put a program to cater to the needs of the people in Yellowknife into Hay...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 101)

Thank you. The RCMP's collective agreement is not reflected in this budget. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 101)

Yes, thank you. Yes, as we look at SFA and, you know, how we want to improve the program, we can look at things like that. You know, there's always considerations. You know, we have to follow the rules in other legislation and there's other financialrelated legislation that might be requiring us to do certain things but, you know, with the review, I want to ensure that we are developing a program that is responsive to the needs and the circumstances of all residents. And if those residents are in small communities and they have different circumstances that require perhaps some a different way...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 101)

Thank you. I will say that these numbers here don't actually reflect the actual numbers of people employed. These numbers reflect the positions that are funded by ECE. But that being said, we can fund a school board for a number of positions and they can do whatever they want with that money. Generally, they if we fund them for a principal position, they have a principal. But there is a lot of flexibility.

I can get that information in terms of the number of northern or at least Indigenous teachers for the Member. We did provide that to the House not long ago in the form of a written question...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 101)

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I have very little to do with OROGO as it is a regulator and it is parked in Justice. So what happened was this division or this activity, and as it is in the main estimates, what was continuously lapsing, money each year, around $600,000. So the department contracted somebody to or a company to have a look at the operations and work with OROGO and make a determination about how much they would actually need to operate, understanding that OROGO was relatively new and it was provided with the budget before it had done anything. And so it was someone's best guess at...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 101)

Thank you. So as for the $20,000 difference, I will pass it over. But we do fund Skills Canada $70,000 in here as well as another, I think $85,000 to labour market agreement. And, yes, I agree. I remember when they used to go to the regional centres and have their competitions outside of Yellowknife. I think it was great. So I'd like to work with them to make that happen again to you know, to get more kids, students interested in the trades. But on some more of the detail, I can ask Mr. MacDonald. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 101)

That's the dream, that we find ways of delivering services in Yellowknife and in outside of Yellowknife in a way that is meeting people's needs. This program, ICM, is meeting the needs of a small group of people in Yellowknife, and it's very tailored to their needs in this community. We need an approach that's going to work everywhere. You know, these oneoff programs are great but they don't you know, ICM is not going to transform how we deliver services. ISD is going to deliver transform how we deliver services. And so that's the work that we have to do. Thank you.