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 99)

Thank you. I believe that work is still underway. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 99)

Thank you. In this current year, there is not an intent. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 98)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If anyone's familiar with the war on drugs in the United States, I think they've spent about a trillion dollars over the past number of decades and they have more people incarcerated for, you know, possession of drugs than anywhere else in the world, and they still have problems. So if this is like I said, this isn't something we can arrest our way out of. Now that being said, the RCMP are well aware of the situation. I know a lot of people measure the success of the RCMP by, you know, the number of maybe drug dealers in their communities. But the fact is that if there...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 98)

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 98)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I don't have examples of, you know, RCMP giving talks in the schools but the RCMP does do a lot of community outreach. It's a little more prevalent I think in smaller communities where they have more opportunity to have the those oneonones. But I think that it should almost go without saying that it's not a great career, being a drug dealer. And it's not just the RCMP's job to instill that in people. Everyone needs to do that. And so in the education system, we can't just say don't be a drug dealer. We need to say here are some alternatives, these are things you...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 98)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So during 2020, we saw an increase in drug trade, and there's been a trend over the last number of years of increases in that trend. That being said, there are, you know, new resources in this proposed budget for the RCMP. There have been new RCMP in Hay River in the last few years, and we have more RCMP per person than anywhere else in Canada. We have twice as many RCMP per person as most places in Canada. So I'm not sure that the issue is something we can arrest our way out of, but we definitely have a significant amount of enforcement already in the territory. Thank...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 98)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I was just on the phone with the mayor today of Hay River to talk about such a meeting where we bring together those organizations, and I'm happy to do that.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 97)

Mr. Chair, I rise on a point of order under Rule 3.2(3)(m). I waited until today to raise this point of order because I wanted to review Hansard, and I'm raising it at the earliest opportunity at the commencement of Committee of the Whole where the remarks at issue were made.

During Committee of the Whole yesterday while the Minister of the ENR and departmental officials debated the main estimates for the department, the Member for Monfwi asked questions about the barrenground caribou mobile management zone. In that context, the MLA said the following as quoted from the unedited Hansard: But...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 97)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Being the Minister of Education is all about relationships. We have to work with the teachers; we have to work with all of the education bodies across the territory. And I think that we have a good relationship with both of those entities and, as a result, we're able to make things happen without having to mandate them.

I think there is desire among all educators to have this training. That's why there has been uptake on this training. The local school boards see the value in this training, and so that's why it happens as well. So I don't think this is a situation that...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 97)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, I don't have the numbers in front of me, and it's not it's not as easy as just mandating training for educators. As I think we've learned over this Assembly, there's a strong separation of authorities between education bodies and the department. That being said, we always encourage training; we provide extensive training; we work with the NWTTA to ensure that their members are aware that the training is available. And as we go forward in modernizing the Education Act, this is definitely an area where we want to look at to ensure that all teachers receive...