For the jazz guitarist, see Shane Simpson (musician).
Shane Simpson is the current MLA for Vancouver-Hastings in the Canadian province of British Columbia. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly in the 2005 election.
He is a member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party and serves as the official opposition critic for the environment.

Early life and career
Shane serves as the environment critic for the BC NDP official opposition. He has spoken out on issues such as climate change, coal-fired power plants, the defense of endangered species and the protection of B.C. provincial parks.
He also participated in the Special Legislative Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture, which proposed protecting wild salmon stocks by banning the development of fish farms in Northern B.C. The committee also recommended that fish farms in B.C. switch from open sea fish farms to a safer closed containment system to prevent the spread of sea lice to wild salmon.

Environment critic

Hansard quotes
"We know that for all the talk that we have in this province from this government about how well we're doing, we have the highest levels of child poverty of any jurisdiction in this country. We know that 25 percent of the children in this province live in poverty, and what we know about that is that children don't get poor by themselves.
Poor children are about poor families. That's the situation we face in British Columbia: an enormous number of families that are living in poverty and being ignored by the government. In my constituency that number is more like one in two rather than one in four, so it becomes an even more serious situation in my constituency." Hansard 2/15/07 Vol.14 No.3

Child poverty
"This is the government that didn't choose to adopt our position on a legislative committee on climate change. We have been told the science is done and now what's needed is the political will.
Well, if we're going to deal with these challenges and if political will is what we need, then we should be putting this issue in the hands of legislators — legislators who would hold public meetings on this issue and who would speak publicly with the experts, where the discussion would be on the record; legislators who would report back to this House, in an open and transparent way, on how to make an effective climate change plan work and who would be accountable to British Columbians.
Instead of this, we have the climate action team, I understand, which will be headed up by the Premier. It has no commitments to public process. It will all go on in the back room. I guess that's where Mr. Finlayson, who has raised serious concerns today about the plan and the 2016 levels on the oil and gas industry…. That's where those discussions will go on — in a back room with Mr. Finlayson or others, instead of in a public forum that a legislative committee would afford us." Hansard 2/15/07 Vol.14 No.3

Drinking water
"When I speak to the people in my community — the first nations people and leaders in my community — they talk about the desperate needs of people in that community that are not being met and that this government is not responding to the needs of those urban aboriginal communities." Hansard 2/15/07 Vol.14 No.3