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 want to start off by just pointing out that the two or kind of apples and oranges because one is talking about JK to 12 education; the other's talking about Aurora College, and they're very separate. In regards to the Member's question about the reduction for our territorial schools and administration, that number is enrolment driven. And so while I did, as Minister, use that number to bring to my colleagues within this fiscal sustainability exercise, that is a number that goes up and down year after year because it is based entirely on enrolment...
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the department was able to look at the last five years of that spending line item and able to identify that over the last five years, typically $150,000 of that subsidy was not spent. And so I would absolutely love the opportunity to go over budget on that line item this year and would challenge my colleagues to help me find employers willing to help us do that. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are some arts funding programs through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. The one that immediately comes to mind for a project like this would be the small arts grant. The small arts grant provides funding up to $5,000 for art projects across the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am most definitely willing to look further into any part of any regulation. I think it's really important that we ensure that we're supporting our most vulnerable residents while still ensuring that we're also maintaining fiscal responsibility. I think it's also prudent for me to also say that income assistance is intended to be a program of last resort and is intended to pick people up when they need to be picked up in order to get to the next month and hopefully be able to access programs that lift them out of that program as well. And so yes...
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in addition to, you know, the accountabilities that we've described, this person also is accountable to a team of people below them that support the work that they're doing. And so it's not just one or two people that they're supporting in this work. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the benefit rates are based on the region in that it uses the northern market basket measure to determine the basic funding that an income assistance client receives. So it is based regionally considering that. While ECE understands that one size fits all might not work for everyone, it works very hard to ensure that programs like income assistance are delivered as fairly and as consistently as possible across the Northwest Territories while still taking into account that there are differences in cost of living for residents from one end of the...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: NWT Office of the Regulator of Oil and Gas Operations Annual Report 20232024. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd say one of the significant changes that I've had the opportunity to speak to quite a bit today is freeing up quite a bit of time of client navigators by ensuring that we are reducing administrative burdens to a significant number of income assistance clients. That leaves about 60 percent of income assistance clients who are still reporting month to month. And it allows the client navigators to form more indepth relationships with those clients. So it means that all of a sudden they are able to make stronger connections within the communities...
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the salary ranges of assistant deputy ministers are standard across the department. And all roles within the department or within all departments and across the government also do performance not performance appraisals performance appraisals job evaluations, and then as people go through their position year after year, they do performance appraisals.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not in control and neither is Cabinet of the agenda for Council of Leaders; however, if the Council of Leaders would like to see this on an upcoming agenda, I would absolutely support that and be more than happy to have this conversation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
