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

Caitlin Cleveland
Kam Lake
Minister's Office

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Box
1320
Extension
11124
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment Minister of Industry, Tourism, and Investment

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 44)

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the individual who would be my subject matter expert on that one is waiting in the dark little room to my right.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 44)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there's certainly an inventory but as we know, there are different ideas or different dreams that we all have of how we'd like to see land in the territory used, and so ensuring that we're working collaboratively with our education body partners is paramount in this process. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 44)

Thank you very much. Sorry, just one moment, please.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 44)

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said to the Member I'm very happy to have these conversations, but to be honest I think having these conversations are a huge opportunity for the territory in figuring out what really is needed within communities, and I'm excited to be able to kind of share with this House what that next step looks like and certainly won't be doing that in isolation on my own. This is certainly a Northwest Territories conversation and, more specifically, a community conversation, and I really look forward to having those. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 44)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, those are tied to our Canada-NWT Canada-wide early learning and childcare agreements, and both the childcare agreement that handles wage subsidy and operations costs and also the one for the infrastructure funding, and those dollars flow directly from education, culture and employment into day homes or childcare centre providers. So those are the grants and contributions that are happening as directly to the childcare providers.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 44)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, for that level of detail and to be able to kind of give the Member a really robust response, I'd like to pass to the assistant deputy minister, please.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 44)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, certainly this is the first piece of social legislation in the Northwest Territories that will be collaboratively drafted by -- or sorry, with Indigenous governments, and so this is -- it's certainly not lost on me that this is a great opportunity to show how we can work on such an important part -- important piece of legislation together.

I also think that in order to do this work justice, it has to be done collaboratively in the Northwest Territories, and so not only is this an opportunity but it's something that really is a requirement for us to be...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 44)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, we have made contribution agreements for years now to College Nordique and Dechinta, but they're unfunded, so you wouldn't find them in line items here because we just see the value in them, and we find ways to make it work. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 44)

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're working with the college, as I've said before in this House, to understand their plans for future delivery of adult literacy and basic education. So part of that engagement will be communicating with Indigenous governments around future delivery of adult education to ensure that residents and communities are supported. And Indigenous governments, I can confirm again, some have reached out to both the department and I on their future use and expectation of how they'd like to see the facilities used. So this will all kind of be part of that go...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 44)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. These regional allocations, of course, are based on the regions as the GNWT does and not our electoral boundary regions. Thank you.