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
Email
Phone
867-767-9141
Extension
11120
Constituency Office

62, promenade Woodland, bureau 104
Hay River Nord NT X0E 1G1
Canada

Phone
867-874-6301
Minister
Email
Email
Premier of the Northwest Territories, Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, Minister of Justice, Government House Leader

Statements in Debates

Question 450-19(2): Illicit Drug Use
Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Changes, not really changes over the past six months. However, as I mentioned, the gun and gangs strategy is under development, and I think that lessons learned during the pandemic will inform that.

Committee Motion 54-19(2): Committee Report 5-19(2): Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2018-2019 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories – Government Response to R
Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here today to present Bill 15, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2020. The purpose of Bill 15 is to amend various statutes of the Northwest Territories for which minor changes are proposed or errors or inconsistencies have been identified. Each amendment included in the bill had to meet the following criteria:

it must not be controversial;

it must not involve the spending of public funds;

it must not prejudicially affect rights;

it must not create a new offence or subject a new class of persons to an existing offence.

Departments responsible for the various...

Question 450-19(2): Illicit Drug Use
Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The RCMP monitor the calls they get and what type of calls they get. Unfortunately, I do not have the data right now to compare the pandemic times to the pre-pandemic time, but when I have that data, I am as interested as the Member to see what it says. Anecdotally, we have all heard that there has been an increase in illicit drug use across Canada. I think, last time I checked, there was just over $100 million in surpayments that made its way into the territory. Just that amount of money, I would assume that there would be an uptick in all sorts of different sales...

Bill 19: An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act
Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 19, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Question 449-19(2): Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act Implementation
Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

The department is working on the materials. I do not have a timeline for training, but the departments that need training are receiving training upon request. Just recently, departmental staff trained with the Department of Infrastructure on how to process these requests. It's an ongoing process.

Bill 17: An Act to Amend the Corrections Act
Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Corrections Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Question 449-19(2): Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act Implementation
Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The ATIPP Act, yes, we were hoping that implementation would be speedier, but there have been significant staffing challenges. We are hoping to bring the act into force in spring of 2021. Recently, we did bring Section 61.1 into force to allow for the access and privacy into force to allow for the access and privacy staff to act as ATIPP coordinators for other public bodies. The staff within the Department of Justice are currently examining the fees, and we hope to have the regulations in place to have those reductions that the Member was speaking of by December.

We...

Question 455-19(2): Northern Trades
Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

I am willing to work with them. There is already a lot of work going on between the Housing Corporation and ECE to try to figure out how can we leverage the journeypersons who work at the Housing Corporation with the LHOs across the territory. That type of work is ongoing. I'm not sure about mandating. I think that we could probably get there by cooperating. We can use a carrot instead of a stick in this situation.

Question 455-19(2): Northern Trades
Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The trades curriculum is based on nationally approved trades standards, so there is not a lot of wiggle room in there to develop our own if we want our journeypersons to be certified across Canada. We do have one trades program that is not national, that is unique to the territory. That is the housing maintainer program. That is one that is currently under review and being updated in a way the Member is referencing. I also want to point out that, with the transformation to a polytechnic university, there are opportunities for research and trades-related research...

Question 453-19(2): Temporary Variation of Statutory Time Periods
Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

As the committee is aware, we are taking a lessons-learned approach, so we're looking at what have we learned over this last little while and moving forward. What do we need to do with the legislation? In some instances, it was clear. For example, with employment standards, there were some changes that were required in order to allow people to access federal benefits. Those ones are quite easy, but I don't have a comprehensive list of what changes departments have identified to date. That work is being undertaken right now, and at some point in the future, we will have that sort of lessons...