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 , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 48)

Thank you. So we don't have a formal contract in place with such an entity but we have used services of, you know, firms in Ottawa, especially when we were travelling down for the -- with the Council of Leaders or as part of the Council of Leaders, and they helped, you know, set up meetings and even things like arranging media interviews and things like that. So, yes, we have used those services in the past. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 48)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So one of the issues is that I want to have a chance to actually meet with the Indigenous governments, talk about negotiations, learn from them what their issues and concerns are, familiarize myself with our mandates and our positions on the concerns from Indigenous governments or our positions on their positions. And, you know, we've been through a full year now. We've had a number of those meetings. And we are actively working on looking at ways to adjust our mandates, if necessary, to ensure that we can make some progress. And so I'm confident that in the first half of...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 48)

Thank you. And I know the Member is a fluent French Speaker, and so we do have Services TNO in Yellowknife which is sort of what the Member's referring to in some ways, a one-stop shop. But we are making incremental moves towards a -- potentially towards a service model like the Member is talking about. In different jurisdictions across Canada, they do have, you know, service, you know, whatever, whatever province you're in, that's the service department. And so that is an opportunity.

One thing that I didn't want to do here was try and overhaul everything all at once. You know, it's a lot of...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 48)

Thank you. Well, I can't speak to every single table but, you know, it's very -- it could be a possibility for sure. I'm hoping to move things along in the way that they need to be moved because, you know, we're only here four years, and I do want to see movement on these. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 48)

Yes.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 48)

Thank you. I agree. And part of the issue is -- just as sort of an education piece for the NGOs, you know, government is very -- almost regimented in the budgeting cycle, and we need to ensure that NGOs are aware of where we are in that cycle. You know, everyone has to be their own advocate, and so we will work with the NGOs but we also want to empower them to advocate when they need to to ensure that they're keeping us honest as well. So thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 48)

Two years into the last government. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 48)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned yesterday in the House, the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs is working with NGO partners in Yellowknife. There's a meeting coming up in early March, another one in early April, and so that's the forum often where those types of discussions would happen, and those types of gaps would be identified. There's been a number of conversations over the past many months since last summer between the government and NGOs, and so I'm confident that the department is aware of those gaps. I don't have a list on hand, and I can't point to an itemized list...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 48)

Thank you. So we are working on a tracker that we can share with committee. It's not, you know, available right now, but, yes, that work is underway. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 48)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the mandate is to build relationships, really. We've been working with Ottawa. We've had success with some offices, federal offices. Other federal offices, they have been more difficult to engage with and get information from. And that's important to be able to have that ability, especially when we have asks that we're bringing forward to Ottawa that we need to move along. We need to make sure that they're not falling off anyone's radar and so this is an opportunity to ensure we're pushing that. I have had a lot of -- I've had reach out from federal Ministers about...