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 48)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have Mr. Mike Reddy, director of legislation, and Mr. Blair Van Metre, director of corrections services.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 48)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here today to present Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Corrections Act. I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight for their review and for Members supporting the expedited consideration of this bill. As work progressed on the development of regulations to support the coming into force of the new NWT Corrections Act, the department concluded that Section 42 of the act lacked clarity. This section deals with the process for when the rules of a correctional centre are believed to have been breached by an inmate and when disciplinary or...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 48)

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 second time. This bill amends the Student Financial Assistance Act to prohibit the inclusion of student's personal information in the public accounts, notwithstanding the Financial Administration Act. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 48)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Rules of the Legislative Assembly, Rule 63 states that a formal motion that has been defeated cannot be introduced again in the same session. Essentially, we've just defeated a motion to remove a set amount from the bill. We just introduced another to remove a set amount from the bill. We could go through this dollar by dollar millions of times, so I don't believe that this motion is in order, Mr. Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 48)

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Legal Profession Act, be read for the second time. This bill amends the Legal Profession Act to remove the requirement that an applicant for admission as a member of the society must be physically present in the Northwest Territories to take and sign the oath or affirmation that is required before engaging in the practice of law in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 48)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is money in Finance and there is money in ECE because the funding initiative was a joint venture. Finance provided funds for the technology, primarily, so the Chromebooks, Internet access, and things like that. The work to get those out the door is underway. For the most part, the total amount of money is being split evenly between the school boards. There were some school boards that needed additional teaching positions, so note that money is flowing to those specific school boards versus those that did not need those positions. We have allocated a good chunk of...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wouldn't characterize what's been happening as a comprehensive review. That indicates that there are working groups and there's a lot going on. We are working through this pandemic, which is still ongoing. We haven't gone through an entire season yet. We haven't gone through an entire fiscal year. We haven't gone through an entire budgeting cycle, so there's still a lot to be learned. As we learn things, we're making note of them. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

I can't speak for every department. I know that when this legislation was being contemplated, it was clear there were some deadlines that departments weren't going to meet, and I just referenced ECE as being one of them. We didn't want to be in violation of other statutes. That's the reason this was put forward. Like I said, it expires, I believe in December, so there's still some time. I know we'll get at least some use of it, but I can't speak for other departments as to why this was not used. Perhaps, they found other workarounds. There was a lot of attention put to other things during the...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 47)

The GNWT Interdepartmental Working Group on Family Violence commissioned the Aurora Research Institute to provide an evidence-based report for the GNWT to use as a guide to shape the actions and the investment of the GNWT in responding to the crisis of family violence. The results of this report show that we need an integrated, community-based approach to appropriately support families and prevent violence. They identified five main themes: education interventions; cultural integration; the justice response; the clinical response; and system transformation. This will require a change to our...