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

Committees

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 11)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm happy to once again publicly state that I will table the draft order as laid out in the motion. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That might be a bit much. I'm not quite sure that we can provide that level of detail. We don't quite know what it would take. We would likely piggyback with Alberta and, you know, make the changes at the same time. So while Alberta is contacting the airlines saying that they're getting rid of their time change, we could be part of those conversations. That would be my hope. So I'll see what we can what information we can put together, but I don't think it's going to be the level of detail to perhaps satisfy the Member. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No one would like that more than me. I was really pushing for this in the last government. Unfortunately I can't make that commitment. There's a variety of reasons. It is unfortunately a much more labour intensive and much more complicated task than people might expect. There is not one entity that you go to and say, I want to get off daylight savings time; I want to stick with a permanent time. We have to reach out to, you know, Microsoft, Apple, Google, a number of these different companies. So maybe I can leave it at that. The Member might have more questions; I don...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 9)

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 2, Missing Persons Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 9)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, you know, there's procurement issues so I don't have an answer that I can that I think would be sufficient right now at my on the tip of my tongue. So I would have to get back to the Member with a written response. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 9)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It can be difficult to negotiate in public and through the media, and so when we are trying to work with just the Members, we want to avoid that type of noise that comes with that. It is a difficult balance. I get where the Member is coming from. You know, I struggled with that as a Regular Member. But the fact is that, you know, we are elected to do that work on behalf of constituents. So sometimes the constituents don't have all of the information but they've appointed us to look at that information and make our best judgments. But I understand where the Member is...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 9)

I'd like to redirect that to the Minister of MACA. Thanks.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 9)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the salary of MLAs is something that's been an issue in every Assembly I've been in. It's always a political issue. And part of the reason, from my understanding, that it's not tied to any sort of a negotiated contract, a collective agreement, is because we don't want our salaries we don't want any skin in the game when we're in those negotiations. It wouldn't make sense. I don't think it's good practice to basically be negotiating our own salaries. So I think that is the rationale for the exclusion. So, thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 9)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have to confer with the Minister of Finance, but I do know that public servants do have some whistleblower protection under section 2 of the Charter, freedom of expression, and in certain circumstances. But that's not a decision for me. I have to confer with my colleague, the Minister of Finance as she is responsible for the Public Service Act. So I will do that as soon as reasonably possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 9)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we have our own afteraction review that we are currently trying to start. I wish that the RFP would have gone out last week, and we wanted a bit more time to work with Members but that is going to happen imminently. And so that review is going forward. Happy to hear anything that Members have to say on that. I know that I was I know my answers on the floor of the House yesterday. That's what that that was the response I was told I was going to get on the floor of the House, but if there's more feedback that the Members have I'm happy to hear that. If there's...