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 86)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will have to pass this one off, but I'll say that the current numbers are reflective to, I think, a great extent of the COVID19 situation and the fact that, you know, both corrections, and the courts especially, made the conscious effort to try and reduce the number of inmates. Whether or not those numbers go back up is yet to be seen, but I think that we have seen the numbers stay low and we haven't seen any sort of repercussions in the communities. So I think it's promising and, hopefully, we can keep these numbers down and people don't see a need to keep people...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 86)

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents: Aurora College Corporate Plan 2021/2022; Revised Aurora College Capital Budget 2021/2022; and, 2020-2021 Annual Report on Official Languages. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 86)

Thank you. We don't have correctional facilities but we do have probation officers in those communities who travel. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 86)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I would not say that they have no future. I think there is a future for everyone. There's Members in this Assembly who dropped out of high school and went back and, you know, accomplished quite a bit with their lives. So I would never say that the student has no future.

Right now, this Assembly has prioritized education to the greatest degree, I think we've seen, in quite a while. So there's a lot of efforts to going into assisting students right from before they enter school in their early childhood through the JK to 12 system and then once they're out. Even if they...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 86)

Thank you. Perhaps I can pass that on to the deputy minister. First, I just want to comment that I'm aware that we have lower numbers right now and I've looked into what we can  what sort of savings we can expect, if any, understanding that there's often a lot of fixed costs and you don't save a lot if the numbers fluctuate a little bit. But I this is an area where perhaps we will have some savings in the future. But as it stands, these vans presently do need to be replaced. But I can ask the deputy minister for some more information. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 86)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment provides some broad strategic direction to education bodies. It provides funding to education bodies. But really it's the education bodies themselves, the DEAs and DECs, who really deliver the education to students. And so I can talk about the supports that ECE provides, but really the -- obviously the majority of the supports are at that level. So ECE has the ministerial directive on inclusive schooling and that provides explicit funding for and direction to education bodies on supports for students in the territory...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 86)

Thank you. That work has been done, and I believe the final inspection is on December 3rd. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 86)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So article 19 also mentions several steps in determining the RCMPdirected reviews where contract partners, such as ourselves, have input into the work. So it would be a hundred percent funded review as sort of a last step if we don't get satisfaction through those other methods. So every fiscal year the contract management committee, made up of ADMs and policing from across the country, Public Safety Canada and some municipal representatives, may provide certain matters to be audited in the RCMP's operations, and there's a strategic advantage to this process as the...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 86)

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I have the updated numbers somewhere here. I can look them up.

So at NSCC, we have a capacity of 148, and we have 55 inmates;

SMCC, capacity of 36, and we have six inmates;

Fort Smith Correctional Centre, female, our capacity is 23 and we have four inmates; and,

The male facility in Fort Smith, with a capacity of 21, we have eight.

For a total of 73. And at the youth facility, we have a capacity for 25, and we have one. So we have 74 inmates, a total capacity of 253. So very, very low capacity, which I would argue is a good thing. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 86)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The RCMP as the service provider in our agreement with Public Safety Canada provides so the financial accountability is to the federal government essentially. The responsibility for RCMP financial statements rests with the RCMP and the Government of Canada and is submitted as part of the public accounts of Canada. The RCMP expenditures are reported to the Legislative Assembly through the public accounts of the GNWT. Costs related to the RCMP fall under the policing services activity of the Department of Justice. Accountability for the Territorial Police Service...