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 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With all the talk about outhouses and A New Day program, it feels like I am back in the 18th Assembly. As the Member noted, the contract for A New Day program was a four-year contract that ends at the end of March. The Department of Justice will not be renewing that contract. The contractor has been informed of this. The plan is to transform the program into more of a community-driven model and making that money available on an application basis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 61)

I just saw the Member's questions earlier today, and I already started those conversations with the department to figure out if there is a way that we can get that information public.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are service standards that have been developed for the Employment Standards Office, and those relate to how long between making a complaint or an inquiry and receiving a call back. The length of time between a complaint being made and a decision is not something that has traditionally been tracked. There is a wide variety of factors that determine how long a complaint would take to finalize or come to a decision. There are complaints that take one phone call to be decided upon, and then there are complaints that take months. It's feasible there could be complaints...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 61)

There is a number of things the GNWT as a whole does. Supplementing wages is one thing so that employees can be paid a higher wage, things like our wage top-up program. We also have a wage subsidy program through ECE that supports employers who hire people who might need training. We help those kinds of people who need the training who maybe don't have the opportunities to get the big jobs yet. We are developing a polytechnic university in order to help train people to get the jobs they want. The plan is to make it as easy and accessible for people to get educated and get trained as we can. We...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWT has the highest employment rate, the lowest unemployment rate in Canada, but it's not evenly distributed. We have communities where everyone who wants to work is working. Then you have small communities where there're people who might want to work, but there're no jobs. Over half our small communities have less than 50 percent employment. We have a number of different problems. In regards to the people who don't want to get off the couch, that's a tough one. How do you motivate them? I think the best way to start is to start young. ECE's doing a number of things...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 61)

I can send those off and request feedback from the standing committee, but the plan right now is really to have it community-driven and not have it necessarily dictated. That being said, there has to be some sort of structure around it, so we can definitely collaborate in that sense. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 61)

A call for expressions of interest will be released in April. Any proposal will be looked at by a men's healing fund committee based on the application guidelines that we are developing. That work is under way.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 61)

Just like anything, we look at what's the need and weigh all of the different competing priorities across the GNWT, and we staff accordingly. Right now, there is a manager in the office who is also an employment standards officer; there are three inspectors; and there is a finance, collections, and information officer. In 2020, one of the inspector positions was vacant, and for the last six months or so of 2020, the finance position was also vacant. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 61)

Absolutely. It's a public document. I'm sure it's available somewhere in hard copy possibly; maybe it's up in the offices. I'm not sure, but I'll make sure that it is nice and visible so the Member can find it. I will share it directly with him, as well.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 61)

We do have, like I mentioned, the small community employment program, which does just that. It puts money into communities to create jobs. I will also note that this is one of the reasons that I wanted to have a look and review of the Income Assistance program. The Member mentioned a few times that maybe it's easier to just not work than to work, and then perhaps, that's keeping people on the couch, so to say. Is there a way that we can use those programs to help people get passed that point, get over the welfare wall, as they say? That's something else that we're doing. Again, there's a...