R.J. Simpson

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

R.J. Simpson
Hay River North
Member's Office

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Box
1320
Email
Extension
11120
Constituency Office

62, promenade Woodland, bureau 104
Hay River Nord NT X0E 1G1
Canada

Phone
Minister
Email
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 88)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The framework is under the purview of the Department of Health and Social Services. It runs until 2027. And, of course, because a framework has a date in its title doesn't mean that we just throw it out the window come 2028. So the ideas, the pillars in that framework, are still valid going forward. There's not currently a plan, from what I understand, to develop the next generation of framework. That being said, it does run for -- until the end of 2027. So we have a couple more years. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 88)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I think that there are certain things where we do need an all-of-government approach. It's important that all of the departments, when making decisions, are aware that this is an important issue to the Legislative Assembly, to the people of the territory. So I definitely see the value of it, which is why we have the framework. And the Member's questions really have sparked my interest in this so I will be looking at this going forward and looking at what we can do to ensure there is more consistency. We do do a lot across government. That being said, I find things...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 88)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I understand there is collaboration ongoing. I can speak directly to my portfolio with the service integration initiative. We are sharing more -- we are working with NGOs to share information about specific clientele, and that is currently only focused on the homeless population. But nonetheless, we can get information through there about status of persons with disabilities. But that being said, that is the one department. To see what's going on across the rest of government, I will need to take this back and get some more information, and I am happy to do that and...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 87)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the review is going to look at the governance system, how well is our governance system functioning, examining the period from signing of devolution until 2023. We're going to look at what works well, what's been working well, what doesn't work well, what lessons have been learned, are the current processes sufficient, in particular in terms of how we deal with roadblocks when we run into roadblocks, are we letting them linger too long at the working group without elevating them up to the officials or the political level. So it's definitely -- we're looking at the...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 87)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd have to go look through the archives to see if there is such a thing. But as I think you all know, there is no consistent administrative region of the GNWT. Depending on the department, the borders are different. The Naka and education, culture and employment, infrastructure, they all have different borders for the administrative regions. And so we don't have a process to do this. It's not something that is done very often. And so I guess that's the answer, that there is no process right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 87)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have that level of detail, and I have to admit this is more in the Minister of ITI's realm. That being said, if the Member would like, I would be happy to invite him to sit down with officials and have a discussion so we can get some in-depth background information and, you know, provide his comments on what he would like to see going forward. I'd be happy to do that because I know how interested the Member is, and I am sure he'd provide some valuable insight. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 87)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't see it in the RFP here. I believe I saw something in there so I don't have the information at hand, but this is a publicly available document that speaks about the expectations for how security guards will behave in environments where they're providing their services. There is an expectation that if there is the need to physically detain someone to protect the staff, protect the other residents at a facility or patients in a health centre, that that would be within the scope of the duties of the security guard, all while remaining within the scope of the -- or...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 87)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not aware of any GNWT-wide policy that does such things; however, I did have a look at what RFPs are out there right now, and I see an RFP for security guard services, and in that it requires that all employees performing professional security guard services must have cultural sensitivity training, such as but not limited to, the GNWT Living Well Together, and it goes on.

And it also states that proponents shall be responsible for response and management of all physical and verbal violence within the facilities using approved crisis prevention, institute non-violent...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 87)

Thank you. I will have to get back to the Member. Thanks.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 87)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the way I understand it, at the last intergovernmental council meeting, we tasked the intergovernmental council secretariat, which is the officials level group representing each of the governments at the intergovernmental council, with developing terms of reference that -- for the review that we could put out to a contractor to actually administer the review. So the intergovernmental council secretariat was working on the terms of reference, on developing the framework to figure out what we need to -- what questions we need to ask, what we need to get the contractors...