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 4)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, there needs to be some relief for the staff and this process needs to be one that is doable and achievable. And so based on that review, we'll make a decision about which direction we go. I don't think it's unreasonable to think that setting some more reasonable timelines is on the table. So we'll be looking at everything, including the timelines. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 4)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm confident that the timeliness will improve. I'm not sure if the issue at large will be corrected. Across Canada, governments are struggling to fulfill these ATIP requests. Because of the parameters around them, they're very labour intensive. They take a lot of resources. And I recall conversations back in the 18th Assembly when this legislation was being considered, and we really shot for the moon. I was on the standing committee with the Member from Range Lake that is back then it was Kam Lake and, you know, we did push for these tight timelines and we got them...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 4)

Yes.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 4)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I have been Premier a couple months now, and there's many different things in this portfolio. For some reason, there's homelessness, there's procurement, all sorts of different things. So I'm still wrapping my head around every single policy that we have, and I want to make sure that I put my stamp on it going forward. It's the start of a new term, and I'm not just going to accept what has been given. I want to make sure that I'm working with the Indigenous governments and going in the right direction before we start before I start putting things out that might not...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 4)

Thank you. There is a statutory requirement in the act to conclude the review within 18 months of the start of the 20th Assembly. So it must be done before the summer of 2025. Hopefully sooner, but that remains to be seen depending on what the priorities of this Assembly wind up being. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 4)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the access privacy office has seen an increase in requests and an increase in the complexity of those requests. I'm not sure if there's a huge public demand. It's a relatively small group of people that are being served by that office. There's companies, there's lawyers, there's individuals who are requesting documents that, you know, end up being tens of thousands or thousands of pages. Every single one of those pages has to be found, discovered by someone in say, for example, MACA, who has two people working fulltime to fill these requests for a very very very...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 4)

Working on it, Mr. Speaker. There's a lot of voices in the room so it's taking some time, but we'll get there. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 3)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We've reached out to all MLAs and encouraged them to organize constituency tours where the MLA would set up we would go to the MLA's riding and meet with whoever the MLA would like us to meet with. So if the MLA would like to organize that meeting, I will attend. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 3)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is collaboration across departments; however, if I have an issue as an MLA and it involves a senior and it's about income assistance, I'm not going to the Minister responsible for seniors. I'm going to the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment because that's where the authority and the money is. So if there's an issue, you should go to the Minister who actually has the ability to deal with that issue. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 3)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So there's a number of steps that need to be taken before there's a direct appointment. There's guidelines laid out for the department, how they're supposed to work through this. There is an assessment by the Cabinet secretariat, which is independent from the departments. There's the Ministers. So if the Member has some examples of things that we can do, I'm happy to hear about it. But from what I've seen, the direct appointment process works very similar to a normal HR process that we have in the GNWT. Thank you.