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 117)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can't bind future governments but I'm confident that we will see a name change in the Member's lifetime. I wish the Member a very long life. But the plan has been to as the Member knows, we are working to address some of the infrastructure issues at the museum, some type of retrofit, perhaps a new governance model, and tied in with that would be a name change. Instead of just slapping a new name on an old building, we want to package it all together so it is a new there's a sense of renewal associated with it so it's not just we're doing it for the sake of doing it...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 117)

Abstain.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 117)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is part of the RCMP training. As well, Gdivision, the RCMP in the Northwest Territories, have requirements for new members to engage with the community once they become part of that community, to meet with elders, to participate in community events. And there's a number of other things that a number of other things that happen in the territory in response to the MMIWG and TRC that the department is the lead on, not necessarily the RCMP. The community safety officer pilot project, the there are community justice programs which we've had for a number of decades now...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 117)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, again, these are all very operational. I don't want to give partial answers. The Member's very good at soliciting information from Ministers through written questions and through these very complex oral questions. And so what I'm going to have to do is provide a written response once again. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 117)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Territorial Police Services Agreement is a 20year agreement, and it goes until the year 2032. It is collectively managed by all provinces and territories. So there wouldn't be much utility in myself sitting down and reviewing this 80page document. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 117)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So as I mentioned, citizens can bring their complaints directly to the RCMP in which case, depending on the nature of the complaint, it might be investigated internally by Gdivision. If it is a more serious complaint, an outside agency would be brought in to do the investigation. And if it's brought to the civilian review and complaints commission, they would be the ones undertaking that. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 117)

Yes, Mr. Speaker. Qulliqs have been lit in the museum before, in the auditorium area. There could be arrangements made to have them lit in other areas but a bit of a head's up is needed to ensure that, you know, sprinkler systems are turned off so that we don't damage any of our artifacts and that smoke detectors perhaps are temporarily removed. And that's the situation we found ourselves in, where there just wasn't enough lead time given to make a change like that to allow for one to be lit. And it's an unfortunate incident, and I think there's we would have done things differently if we had...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 117)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And there is still a fulltime toponymist which is now known as a cultural places officer, and that was renamed about ten years ago, so still 30 years after the Member first arrived here. And then that position does all of the naming work that the Member is talking about. And it is a busy office.

There have been hundreds of name changes and new names made official in the last number of years, and currently there are 424 new and replacement names that have been submitted by the Lutselk'e Dene First Nation, and 13 Indigenous place names in the Naats'ihch'oh National Park...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 117)

In favour.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 116)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I gave an update last week with one of my Minister's statements, and I'm always happy to discuss this exciting project. So yes, I will provide an update to the House. Thank you.