Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister of Education, Culture and Employment
The Honourable Caitlin Cleveland was first elected in the 19th Assembly as the MLA for Kam Lake in 2019, and has served as the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment since 2023 after being acclaimed to the 20th Assembly.
In addition to owning and operating a northern business for over 20 years, Minister Cleveland worked in a variety of communications and policy roles in both the public and private sectors before entering politics.
Between 2019 to 2023, she chaired the Standing Committee on Social Development, fulfilling a goal to be a part of the discussions and decisions affecting social programs in the Northwest Territories. Her noteworthy work on the Committee included guiding the considerable review and input into recommendations on housing in the NWT, suicide prevention, and improvements to caring for children in care and building supported families.
Within the scope of her portfolios, Minister Cleveland is focused on helping children grow into successful NWT residents that recognize opportunities and develop successful careers that contribute to a growing economy. She advocates for new approaches to sector diversification and innovation, and ensures the North is welcoming both skilled foreign workers and investment in the critical mineral resources across the territory. She persistently explores solutions for efficient and equitable access to programs and services, upholding a shared vision of an NWT where people are supported in the ways they wish to live, work, and grow.
Minister Cleveland is a lifelong resident of Yellowknife where she lives with her husband and their three children.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment Minister of Industry, Tourism, and Investment
Statements in Debates
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my first question is in regards to education renewal and innovation. This line item appears to have come down a little bit. And my concern is that in the following fiscal year, hopefully the 20th Assembly which will be part of that fiscal year, will be able to dive right into the education renewal. And so I'm wondering if the education renewal, in fact, some of it comes out of here or is it largely centered within the corporate management section? Thank you.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Yes, it was that $5.6 million fund towards SFA that I was looking for. I'm wondering if there is any conversation, given the changes that have happened to income security and student financial assistance, if there's been any conversation with the federal government to increase that amount especially given that one of the most exciting changes that was made to income security was this opportunity for Indigenous students to really go for unlimited terms of education if that's what they so desire. Thank you.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm going to work really hard not to repeat anything that's been said so far.
So first I wanted to start off with so the Minister indicated that the intent is to kind of go out and do some public relations in regards to this new program later on in the year with the intent of kind of looking at June or July. My concern is that revamps to income security include student financial assistance and student financial assistance has a deadline of June. And so I'm wondering how students will learn about changes to the program in advance of them actually...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to move on to the infrastructure fund. And given that the goal of ECE is to increase spaces by 300 children in the life of the federal agreement, I'm wondering why we're not seeing an increase to this fund given that especially what we're seeing from lessons learned from Quebec was an urge to increase capacity upfront. Thank you.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we're in a bit of an interesting jurisdiction where we are also very reliant not only on notforprofit day cares, but we have a lot of day homes. When my kids went to child care during the day, all three of them went to day home providers, which was wonderful. I still have relationships with those people and adore them. My kids spent more time with those people than they did with me. And so I'm wondering how does it work within the territory as far as these wage topups? Is it provided to both day cares and day home providers, and how does that division...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. No, that's helpful information. I'm also just looking at the total raise in funds for the early learning and child care program budget. And I'm wondering what portion of this will go to dollars needed for the increase in the wage grid that is expected to come in the next year? Thank you.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm very happy to hear from the Minister that they're looking at new ways of doing this. One of the things that I find very frustrating is when you hear year after year after year there's a vacancy, we're waiting for someone to fill the vacancy. How long do you wait for someone to fill a vacancy before you start looking at new ways to do stuff? And so I'm really looking forward to this review. I think it's really important. I think a lot of kids depend on the services that they're just not getting right now.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I also want to confirm that these policies will enable tenants to be able to adjust their rent. A lot of places in the territory, including in small communities, use seasonal work that might be part of this homebased business, and I want to make sure that people can adjust their rent even through a homebased business so that their income or sorry, their rent is properly reflective of their income as they move throughout the year and throughout the seasons. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And thank you for that clarification from the Minister. I just don't want to leave the 20th Assembly without dollars to do the work that needs to be done for that one.
I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to why there's been a decline in the education operations and educator development fund? It looks like there is about a $200,000 decrease there.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the mandate called for policies to allow for homebased businesses as of summer of 2022. It also called for the enabling of public housing to have licensed child care programs in it in the fall of 2022 or sorry, 2020 as well. So given that these timelines have very clearly changed now that we're two and a half years later, when can this side of the House expect to see this kind of a framework and policy change? Thank you.
