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 , 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 48)

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Corrections Act, be read for the second time. The bill amends the new Corrections Act which is not yet in force. The bill amends the section of the act dealing with rule breaches and the imposition of disciplinary and corrective measures. It ensures that reasons must be provided for both a finding of guilt respecting an alleged breach of a rule and any disciplinary or corrective measures imposed. It ensures that an inmate can appeal both a finding of guilt and any measures imposed...

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...

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

Changes, not really changes over the past six months. However, as I mentioned, the gun and gangs strategy is under development, and I think that lessons learned during the pandemic will inform that.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here today to present Bill 15, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2020. The purpose of Bill 15 is to amend various statutes of the Northwest Territories for which minor changes are proposed or errors or inconsistencies have been identified. Each amendment included in the bill had to meet the following criteria:

it must not be controversial;

it must not involve the spending of public funds;

it must not prejudicially affect rights;

it must not create a new offence or subject a new class of persons to an existing offence.

Departments responsible for the various...

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

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The RCMP monitor the calls they get and what type of calls they get. Unfortunately, I do not have the data right now to compare the pandemic times to the pre-pandemic time, but when I have that data, I am as interested as the Member to see what it says. Anecdotally, we have all heard that there has been an increase in illicit drug use across Canada. I think, last time I checked, there was just over $100 million in surpayments that made its way into the territory. Just that amount of money, I would assume that there would be an uptick in all sorts of different sales...