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.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. We all know that travel can eat up a budget pretty quickly and that, having fewer than 40 people having gone through the assessment, I think we could stand to maybe add some more resources to that. However, will the Minister commit to developing a comprehensive plan for the treatment and support of FASD and complex developmental behavioural conditions in the NWT? Thank you.
How many people currently living out of territory in residential care are there because they have FASD or cognitive disabilities, and how many would be able to brought home if we had appropriately resourced FASD support services?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank listeners for following Avery's story this week. It represents the experiences of many NWT residents. Avery's search for government help highlights the shortcomings of our system. The GNWT's current service delivery model is failing clients and costing taxpayers. We serve dozens of Averys and many more turn away in despair because they cannot get the help they need. This government must learn from Avery's experiences and implement preventative client-focused care before more Averys fall through the cracks.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of housing. The Housing Corporation has something called the community residency requirement where somebody must live in a certain community for a certain number of months, and sometimes it's up to a year, before they can actually put their name on a wait list for public housing. I am just wondering what the purpose of that policy is. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I am not quite done, I think, with questioning the Minister of Health and Social Services. I understand that this program is fresh and it is new, but FASD has long been a challenge in the Northwest Territories, and I do not believe that we are quite there yet and that people are getting the support that they need. I would just like to ask the Minister again: will she look at creating a comprehensive plan for the treatment and support of people with FASD and complex behavioural conditions within the Northwest Territories? Because it is something that we really...
I appreciate that people have job descriptions, and I will say that every single person that we came across fulfilled their job description. They fulfilled the mandate of their department. That's what they intended to do and what they are supposed to do. People aren't boxes, and they don't fit into boxes. People's challenges in life extend beyond one single box of one mandate in one department. When somebody presents with a challenge with housing, it quite often is not simply a matter of a housing issue. When somebody presents with a challenge of income security, it is not solely a challenge...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I spoke earlier about the challenges that an NWT resident had in accessing programs and services through the GNWT. Two-and-a-half minutes definitely was not enough time to go through the detailed challenges and frustrating challenges that this person faced in order to get some access and in order to get some resolution to some of their challenges. My point is, Mr. Speaker, that our programs and services, we spend millions and millions of dollars making programs and services available within the GNWT, but they are definitely not accessible to NWT residents. I...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'll be sure to ask the Minister some of those questions tomorrow. As far as the Mackenzie Valley fibre link and the cost of Internet, the Department of Finance, in my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, sets the wholesale rate for Internet throughout the Northwest Territories using the infrastructure, and then companies come in and add on a retail rate for that. Something we hear about quite often from our constituents is the cost of Internet and the service that is provided. I'm wondering if the GNWT is, at all, discussing the wholesale rate and how they...
