R.J. Simpson

Member Hay River North

Premier
Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs
Minister of Housing

 

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's Office
Email

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 154)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, of course, as everyone knows I can't direct the RCMP. But I certainly can relay what is being said in the House, and I will say that I did speak to the commanding officer about this prior to today actually, and I know that, you know, he is concerned, the RCMP are concerned. I feel for the mother. This is unimaginable. This is every parent's nightmare. And so I think that if I was in the same position, I would also feel that people weren't doing enough. I can't imagine, Mr. Speaker; so my heart goes out. And I appreciate the Member's statement as well, her call for...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 154)

Mr. Speaker, there's no place like home. And I think that the residents of Hay River know that as well as anyone. For the second year in a row, the entire community of Hay River, as well as KFN, have been evacuated in the middle of the night. And finally today, the majority of residents of Hay River can go back to the community and I am sure many of them are on the road right now. I am sure many of them were on the road yesterday. Unfortunately, our neighbours, our friends, our family, our coworkers, at KFN, they don't have that same luxury and so our hearts go out to them. I want to take this...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 154)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So corporate registries is publicly available. Anyone is able to search the corporate registries. It's a free search. For a fee of $4, anyone can then get detailed access to reveal who are the directors of that corporation, but the corporate registries does not keep a list of the shareholders of a corporation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 154)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I will certainly raise these issues with the RCMP. You know, we, as a government, have been work on implementing our action plan, our response to the final report on the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The Department of Justice has been working on a missing person's legislation. I was hoping to get it done this term, get it introduced, but it's taking longer than we had hoped. There's a bit more work to be done consulting with the RCMP, with other departments as, you know, it's a piece of legislation that impacts a lot of...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 153)

And so I just wanted to explain this a little bit. So what you're seeing here is in addition to the amendment that I moved yesterday, and that is that an operator may disclose the identity of a complainant, you know, to a lawyer, or as authorized by the director or to a trusted advisor. We understand that there are child care operators who may be new in the business. And they might want to seek advice from someone who has some more experience, or there's a million other scenarios. And we want to ensure that the operators feel like they are supported, and they can reach out and get that...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 153)

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child Day Care Act, be read for the third time. And, Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 153)

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that Bill 81, An Act to Amend the Education Act, No. 2, be read for the second time.

The bill amends the Education Act to update the preamble to

Recognize the vital role that Indigenous peoples and Indigenous governments play in achieving quality and excellence in education;

Clarify a number of defined terms;

Update the procedural requirements to be followed when modifying a school program for a student;

Allow the Minister to access student records for the purposes of evaluating a school program or monitoring student...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 153)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And like my colleagues, a lot of what I wanted to say has already been said so I won't repeat it. But I do want to highlight some of the changes that have happened here at the Legislative Assembly since Mr. Mercer took the helm, and I've seen them even in my seven years here; I've seen a number of changes. And I will say that of course the Speaker gets all the credit for the improvements that happen at the Legislative Assembly, and I know Mr. Mercer wouldn't have it any other way. He doesn't want to take any of that credit, but I believe he has a big hand in bringing...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 153)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And just to clarify what I said earlier, education is in the purview of the province and the territories and when there is a sort of this constitutional split of responsibilities, we try to stick as closely as we can do that split and so the provinces and territories are generally responsible to billion education infrastructure. That being said, as I stated earlier in my comments to the Member from Monfwi, if there's an Indigenous group that feels like these types of initiatives are part of reconciliation, then that's something we can work on. So I'd be happy to work...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 153)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so as the House is aware, we have committed to working with the Tlicho government on procuring a new school for Behchoko. The federal government does not billion schools generally and so in our discussions with the Tlicho government, it's been determined that they would be the best to approach the federal government. And we are fully supporting them once they do that. Thank you.