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. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'd like to start, and then I'd like to pass it to the assistant deputy minister, Mr. Saturnino. But, for starters, absolutely there's more that can be done as far as employers learning about the wage subsidies. And I think that especially when it comes to achieving our goal of increasing SNAP apprentices across the territory especially outside of Yellowknife, the more work that can be done in order to find those employers and make sure that they know that they are eligible for wage subsidies, I am a firm believer that us as MLAs have a role to...
Debates of
, 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 21)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the perspective of the system would be in order to ensure the safety of children in care. One of the things I know, just having spoken to people about this especially in the last term, was in regards to, you know, why can we have a certain number of kids in a classroom and then it shifts to after school care, and we have less kids that are allowed to be less in the adult to child ratio that we're allowed that we are allowing in after school care programs. And one of the things that is communicated to me is because during the day when you have school...
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I absolutely agree with the Member. I know that we are both products of being able to be in French language schools in this territory and are able now to pass that on to our own children, which is definitely a privilege and one that I would like for Northerners to be able to continue.
So within that funding, the Member is right. There's a sunset of funding related to the CanadaNWT Cooperation Agreement on minority language education and second official language instruction, and the Member was totally in tune with his math as well. $1.453 million is...
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, what I can say is that I would like to ensure that we have a department that is doing its part to support the revitalization of Indigenous languages across the territory. I think that there is work to be done both external and internal to the government, and part of that is the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework that is put in play by the Minister of Finance as well and services to the public that is coming out of the GNWT. There's also work that is being done right now in regards to, that I've spoken to already today, like the MAP...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the interim mandate letter that was issued in the last Assembly by the previous Minister of education expires in July. So that's where the July timeline comes in, is that the existing one expires in July. So that project has been jump started by letter from myself to the board of governors, and that project is currently underway between myself and the board. And it is the intention that, yes, it will continue to outline intentions for the board of governors and Aurora College to continue along with their transformation efforts, but it is really a...
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that's not a hundred percent of the story. That is definitely the primary driver for their reductions, but it is not a hundred percent. But I can definitely say that their selection of what dollars that they were not going to use and suggest for this exercise were intentionally not tied to transformation. But for additional detail, I would like the opportunity to invite another assistant deputy minister to join me at the table.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the trades trailers are owned by Aurora College and so would fall under their operations. 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.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would have to phone a friend for that one, but I believe it is worked into federal and GNWT agreements with Indigenous governments. But may I please pass to the deputy minister.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. So this line item or the difference, sorry, in this line item here is a decrease mainly due to reductions of $460,000. And this is partly offset by funding from the Canada Council of the Arts to support artists across the Northwest Territories. And if the Member just gives me two seconds sorry, guys.
So this reduction here is largely due to a reduction in heritage centres across the territory. And so originally, there was a budget there of half a million dollars in the previous Assembly. That budget line item was moved up to a million dollars. But what we...
