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 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 2)

Thank you. No, it is my understanding that work is happening on the report. It's not just sitting on a shelf collecting dust being ignored. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 2)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So in the past government, we did take the step of providing two- and three-year contribution agreements to a number of NGOs, which was a big step. You can't plan with just, you know, one year of topup funding assured. And I do recognize the importance of NGOs and the work that they do. I talk a lot about partnerships and the fact that the GNWT can't do it alone. We can't do everything alone whereas NGOs they have a lot of expertise. They do a lot of things the government can't. So going forward, we will have to work more closely with NGOs, strengthen that relationship...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 2)

Of course. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 2)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So similar to the election period where the public service still continues to exist despite the Cabinet not being active in providing direction, the public service continues to do their work. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 2)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to recognize a few members of the team that we've recently brought on. Our new principal secretary, Dr. Joe Dragon; the deputy secretary, Kyla Kakfwi Scott; and Fredrick Bergeron, the executive administrative coordinator in the principal secretary's office.

I also want to recognize Mr. Tony Whitford, former Member, former Minister, former Speaker, Commissioner, sergeantatarms. We're always happy to see him in the gallery.

Another former colleague, Mr. Jackson Lafferty, of course the Tlicho grand chief, former Member, former Minister, and former Speaker when I was...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 2)

Mr. Speaker, I must begin by acknowledging the plane crash that occurred in Fort Smith on January 23rd. I send my deepest condolences to the families and friends who have been impacted by this tragedy, and to the entire community of Fort Smith. I visited Fort Smith shortly after the accident, and it was clear that the people we lost were loved deeply and will be sorrily missed. I hope the families are able to find some comfort in the outpouring of community support that I witnessed.

Mr. Speaker, I must commend and thank all of the first responders involved in the efforts that day, as well as...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 2)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And as I said, this is work we need to do. So they are I think they're well suited. I think they're designed to get that information. The reviews are going to include feedback from NGOs, the NGOs that were participating in the evacuation that were assisting the vulnerable populations. So we need to know the issues that they ran into, and we need to figure out how the government can better assist them going forward. One of the biggest issues that I saw during the evacuations was communicating and planning. Often people didn't have a plan. There wasn't a plan in place...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 2)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't want to task the department with a bunch of work at this point. Once we get those priorities in, then we're going to have the opportunity to do that work and we will be looking at positions all across the North, funded positions, unfunded positions, vacant positions, filled positions. We really want a good overview of the positions that we have and how they're working and how they're supporting the regions. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 2)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so the was decisions made in the previous government. I can't speak to those decisions, but I can say that, you know, as Minister of ECE I know I put a lot of jobs in Inuvik so, yes, I'm a big supporter of positions in communities and in the regions. And I'll say that it's both Members from Inuvik who have brought this to my attention, so it is definitely on my radar and something that I have initiated discussions with the department about. Thank you.