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, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start by just acknowledging the incredible impact that a teacher leaving a community would have on especially a small community in the Northwest Territories, and I just thank the Member for asking these questions to bring it forward and get the information out.
So in the Northwest Territories, education bodies are responsible for hiring teachers. And specific to Lutselk'e, the high school teaching position became vacant in November of 2023. The South Slave Divisional Education Council filled the position with a long-term substitute, and that person...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's nothing on a daily basis as in day to day. But income assistance clients do have access to their client navigator whenever they do need. And also within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, there are also career development officers that are based in all of the regional offices, for example North Slave, South Slave. And these are also persons that individuals on income assistance would have access to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in response to this question, I can definitely commit to the Member to reaching out to Aurora College and then providing the Member with more information. But this is definitely an interest area of mine as well, and I would like to offer the Member to sit down as well and find out exactly what the community is looking for. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ECE supports education bodies in recruitment of teachers while education bodies themselves hire the teachers. But in that process, there are two online recruitment platforms. The first is an NWT-wide recruitment information database, and there's also a dedicated point of contact to respond to questions that people might have about moving to the Northwest Territories. Because it's really important before people come, that they understand what life is about. And, of course, as always, we really want to also ensure -- in our classrooms, we're encouraging our...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the 19th Assembly, the income assistance program underwent a review, and one of the changes that were made during that review was removing the productive choices requirement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, statistics like that are not something I easily have at my fingertips but with a little bit of warning, I can definitely get that for the Member. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. So the Don't Be a Butt Head campaign as well as the Drop The Pop campaigns are both campaigns that are put together and administered by the Department of Health and Social Services. They have a few health promotion campaigns that are on the go right now not the Minister of health, though, but they do have programs for tobacco cessation. Healthy eating, that is something that also carries through into our schools, and MACA supplies funding for after school snacks and after school programs. So a bit of some kind of...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll start by saying that the BC curriculum has not been fully implemented into every grade and every classroom across the territory. That said, the NWT adapted curriculum of the BC curriculum covers a broad range of health promotion topics, and these include things like balanced lifestyles, understanding personal choices, as well as social and environmental factors, healthy relationships, and managing mental health and emotional and social wellbeing.
In addition to the BC curriculum, Mr. Speaker, we also have our child and youth counselling...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I absolutely welcome any conversation with the college about supports that they need in order to continue forward with transformation, which is a key part of their mandate and a key part of the mandate document that was agreed to between Aurora College and the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment of the day. That mandate document expires in July of this year, and I have no doubt that transformation will continue to be a key part of that mandate document and therefore, given that up like, for the last six months, we've had a great working relationship...
