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 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I know the Member referred to these people who are stealing power and holding people hostage. I get if you are living next to an encampment and there's late night partying, that would be very disruptive and if that goes on continuously, that, you know -- that would aggravate anyone and rightly so, and I understand that. But the fact is that these are people who need a place to stay. I can't imagine that this was their, you know, destination in life, being in an encampment, in an alley, but that's the situation. So we are working with them, having conversations...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we certainly engaged with the business community. For that level of detail, I'm going to have to get back to the Member. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for raising this. We are working -- and trying to work more closely with the NGOs in Yellowknife who are providing critical services. As we move towards integrating more services across government, NGOs are very valuable partners, invaluable partners even. We want to ensure that they are properly supported, that we are hearing from them, that we're working together, and that we're sharing information. And so what we are planning to do is ensure that we have enough shelter space, first of all. We want to ensure that there is enough space for...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, of course, we are going to be providing a response, and this is wading into the Minister of MACA's territory, so I don't want to get too ahead of things. But the long-term work begins now. And so a lot of that long-term work - the planning, the relationships - that's already begun. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the envoy to Ottawa works in the Northwest Territories and works in Ottawa. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't know what the salary of the Prime Minister of Canada is. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Mr. Speaker, thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is mentioning mischief. I'm not sure if that's reference to the Criminal Code but if it is, if there is something in the Criminal Code that would allow the RCMP to go and address this situation, I would not -- I don't have the ability to direct the RCMP to do that. The Justice Minister does not have the ability to direct the RCMP to do that. We have a contract with the RCMP that makes very clear that we do not direct to the RCMP. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so I think one thing that the House needs to be aware of is that there's no legal authority to actually -- for us to remove an encampment. We can't go down there with a bulldozer and knock it down. We have to work with the individuals who are staying there. And so that is the plan, is to work with those individuals, find a -- help them find somewhere to stay -- whether that's a shelter, whether that's a different location -- that's not as disruptive to business and the general public downtown. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, all of those things. So, you know, the population of individuals who are unhoused, you know, they come and go. They don't have fixed addresses obviously, and so just knowing where people are at any given time can be difficult. And so that's, you know, the most fundamental issue that we have. There is things like the Health Information Act which is one of our two pieces of privacy legislation here in the territory, and that puts a lot of boundaries around who information can be shared with, who can hold on to that information, and that can make it difficult when we...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So noting that there will be a full review -- or sorry, a report back on the recommendations, I can note a few things.

So one of the -- obviously, one of the very first things was the realization that fire seasons start earlier than ever and so because of that, the GNWT has been bringing on fire crews, aircraft, seasonal wildfire personnel, earlier than they were before, and there's been significant investments made in mitigation and prevention efforts.

We've been working with Indigenous governments. We heard in the last -- during the 2023 evacuations that Indigenous...