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 109)

Thank you. I just shared the information I have to share at this point. But as the income assistance review continues, I will happily keep Members informed and I've committed earlier to this exact same thing, actually. So yes. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So in our agreement with the federal government, we've agreed to use the funding from them to reduce the cost of childcare by on average 50 percent. And we understand that the cost of childcare varies depending on what people are charging. There is a number built into the federal agreement which so we can handle a 2.3 percent increase and not have to take from any other pots of money. The timing is not great right now because as the Member mentioned, the price of everything is going up. We're seeing, you know, inflation like we haven't seen before. So what we are...

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 108)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And this has been raised a number of times. And no, we are not going to be exploring those avenues. There has been a desire from some people to have us subsidize more than just licensed centres, so unlicensed centres or family members, but unfortunately we can't be everything to everyone and we have to pick our lane. And so what we're focusing on is early licensed early learning childcare spaces. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So as most people are aware, we recently signed a deal with the Government of Canada for around $50 million, and that is to help us transition to a system of universal childcare. There are a number of aspects to this. The first aspect that is rolling out across Canada is to reduce fees for parents by 50 percent on average.

The Member raises some good points. There are other issues. Staffing has always been an issue. And in terms of a living wage, we don't have I don't have the stats for living wages in every community. I know that in some of the regional centres, it's...

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

For.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 38, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2021, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 37, An Act to Amend the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

In favour.