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.
I really want the Minister to see great success from these different federal housing initiatives. For this Rapid Housing Initiative, not the co-investment fund but for this Rapid Housing Initiative, will the Minister allocate an existing staff member from the Housing Corporation to do the application process, starting right away?
Mr. Speaker, in September, the federal government launched the Rapid Housing Initiative, a $1-billion program to help address urgent housing needs of vulnerable Canadians through the rapid construction of affordable housing in partnership with municipal and territorial governments, Indigenous governments, and non-profit organizations. Unfortunately, Cabinet has not updated this House about this new funding opportunity, so I will.
The initiative will support up to 3,000 new permanent, affordable housing units across Canada and cover the construction of modular housing, the acquisition of land...
If the Minister does find an application within their files that has been denied because of market disruption, will the Minister have her senior management team, specifically, look at that application, re-evaluate it against their intentions for the SEED application for this fiscal year?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of ITI because I know she really likes policy and procedure. Mr. Speaker, ITI's SEED Policy described market disruption as circumstances when, in the opinion of the regional superintendent, the granting of a contribution will likely adversely and significantly impact the revenue earned by another business within the region. This definition, plus the duty of the regional superintendent under Section 7.4(c), make it clear that the authority to determine market disruption falls to ITI's regional superintendents, and that this authority is...
Thank you to the Minister for that. Given that 70 percent of ICM clients have housing-related challenges, one out of four is already homeless, and 80 percent showed up at ICM already unemployed, how could income security and housing front-line staff work together to provide a more coordinated wrap-around service at this time?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I'm wondering: what areas of income assistance the Minister will focus on as part of the income assistance review? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. That's exactly what I'm talking about is a collaboration between departments so that we can provide better service to Northerners so that they're not having to go to different departments and really search out what programs what might be available to them because a lot of people have enough struggles. Struggling through GNWT departments should not be one of them. I guess another way of looking at this is: what is senior management doing today in order to change the corporate culture from a gatekeeping one within the GNWT to one where service to the public is...
The Minister lightly touched on it, and I touched on some of the common barriers that were brought up in the ICM report in my Member's statement. I'd like the Minister to hopefully confirm that, yes, all of the common barriers identified in the ICM report will be part of the review of the Income Assistance Program. Some of those, for example, are cumbersome program requirements, late payments, and lack of person-centered approach.
