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 54)

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Family Law Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 54)

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Plain Language Summary for Bill 22, Legislation Act; and, the Statement of Consistency for Bill 22, Legislation Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 54)

Mr. Speaker, there's a lot of legislation I would love to bring forward during the life of this Assembly. The Police Act, you know, that would be one of them; you know, Sheriffs Act, I could probably go on and on and on. But we have limited resources, and we have to provide the legislation for the entire territory. The same way Ontario, Alberta, all these other jurisdictions have to provide legislation, we have to do that as well but we're a much smaller jurisdiction, so it's more difficult to deliver that amount of legislation. So for this Assembly, we have a full agenda, but future...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 53)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won't be able to attend that conference, and so we're still looking at options to ensure that there is some sort of presence there from the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 53)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So there is no committee at this point. I'm not sure what the working group proposal looks like. So I can't really make any commitments around that. That being said, obviously there's a lot of value in ensuring that everyone's on the same page and everyone's communicating. And so we're in the early days of this interest in the North and talking about investments and Arctic security. And my officials are working with officials from Joint Task Force North and the Department of National Defence, and we share information as required. And I know that officials from the...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 53)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I'd have to see those terms of reference and figure out what exactly the Member is talking about in terms of a joint working group, what that would look like, who would be involved, what the subject matter would be, and so on. And so after I see that, I'll be able to speak to the Member about it. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 53)

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 22, Legislation Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 53)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I think the Member might be talking about the Arctic security working group, which is an officials’ level working group. They meet twice a year. I believe it's once in Yellowknife, once in the Yukon, and so this time it's in the Yukon. And we are not organizing that, the Joint Task Force North. I believe the Yukon might be co-hosting it so they might have a role in it. But we're not in a position to invite anyone to attend this event. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 53)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're using all the tools at our disposal. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 53)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since this was announced about a year ago, I've had numerous meetings with Minister Blair, the Minister of National Defence and with other federal Ministers, and we have -- along with the other northern Premiers, we have been lobbying the federal government to enlarge and advance more quickly their investments in the northern operational support hubs. I believe it was $218 million is the number that was in the original plan, and that was mostly to be spent in the final years of that plan. And so we've been advocating to get that money spent sooner than later. In the...