Caitlin Cleveland

Member Kam Lake

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.

Kam Lake Electoral District

Committees

Board of Management
Kam Lake
Constituency Office
Email
Email
Website
https://mla-kamlake.ca
Phone
867-446-1154
Minister's Office

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Box
1320
Email
Email
Phone
867-767-9141
Extension
11124
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment Minister of Industry, Tourism, and Investment

Statements in Debates

Committee Motion 13-20(1): Tabled Document 93-20(1): 2024-2025 Main Estimates, Deferral of Labour Development and Standards – Education, Culture and Employment, Carried
Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 21)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I was able to confirm with the assistant deputy minister that the Indigenous languages line item that's found under contributions just a few line items above, for $5.36 million, is the line item where that funding is found. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 21)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to start off I'd like to answer the Member's previous question. So we currently fund 1,956 spaces in the Northwest Territories.

As far as the background on where those spaces come from, I would like to, please, pass to assistant deputy minister BarnettAikman.

Committee Motion 11-20(1): Tabled Document 93-20(1): 2024-2025 Main Estimates, Deferral of Early Learning – Education, Culture and Employment, Carried
Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 21)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, just to be clear, we did not decrease our contributions or change the funding formula. The funding formula is enrolmentbased, so it would be based on the number of students attending a school based on the numbers provided by that particular education body and particular school. And as far as you know, if the Member is asking how enrolment numbers changed year after year for schools in her region, I'd be happy to access that information but it's not information that I have at my fingertips right now. Thank you.

Committee Motion 13-20(1): Tabled Document 93-20(1): 2024-2025 Main Estimates, Deferral of Labour Development and Standards – Education, Culture and Employment, Carried
Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 21)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as far as the implementation plan of what this will look like and how it will be done is something that is currently in the works within each of the departments, and so it's not something that I was able to, you know, quickly go and do in a rush over the last six months in order to make sure that it was separated out before we got to this part in our term together but I wanted to ensure that this is something that can be done in this fiscal year. So I guess my best response to the Member is stay tuned, and I will make sure that I am doing my best to...

Question 230-20(1): Outcomes of Productive Choices
Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 20)

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I can commit to that to the Member.

Committee Motion 9-20(1): Tabled Document 93-20(1): Main Estimates 2024-2025, Deferral of Department – Health and Social Services, Carried
Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 20)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am lucky enough to serve on Cabinet with a housing Minister who also calls one of our small communities home and is also very passionate about making sure that the teachers who live in her community and in other communities in the Northwest Territories have a place to lay their head so that they can provide quality education to our students. So the Minister and myself have already begun to have meetings about how we can work together to support one another in this effort because we recognize it as a significant need across the territory.

Question 235-20(1): Pathways to Education for Income Assistance Clients
Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 20)

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it was my understanding that ensuring that students have pathways to education and then being able to return to their home communities is something that was changed in the last Assembly, but I can absolutely commit to having that conversation with my colleague as well to ensure that we're creating pathways to education. Thank you.

Committee Motion 9-20(1): Tabled Document 93-20(1): Main Estimates 2024-2025, Deferral of Department – Health and Social Services, Carried
Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 20)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is going to take me into the income assistance section. So it is absolutely one of our deliverables under or business plan to work collaboratively with the primary's department, and that would take us into working with departments as well, like housing with Minister Kuptana. Within and one of the things we talked about quite a bit today was the ability of the new income assistance program to free up some time of the client navigators within the income assistance division so that as they are working with some of our most vulnerable residents...

Question 229-20(1): Implementation of Guaranteed Basic Income
Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 20)

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this type of work has not been fully done. About 20 years ago, the GNWT undertook an initiative that aimed to better align and streamline various social programs, but that work did not continue. What we are seeing, though, right now is absolutely I agree with the Member, there needs to be an alignment of our social programming and our social services and that's why you see a lot of conversation in the 19th Assembly, and has continued into the 20th Assembly, about integrated service delivery and an acknowledgement that integrated service delivery...

Committee Motion 9-20(1): Tabled Document 93-20(1): Main Estimates 2024-2025, Deferral of Department – Health and Social Services, Carried
Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 20)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have a headquarters number of 38. And sorry, the policy planning sorry, planning, research, and evaluation is seven.