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. 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...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. So the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Innovation was established in May of 2020, closed in 2023. That centre was actually funded by CanNor, a project through CanNor. As far as I am aware, there has not been any additional funding through CanNor that has been given to the college for this centre. And I as Minister have not received a request for additional funding for that centre for Aurora College. It's not something that we could fund from dollars from within at this time. But if I were to receive a request, it...
Mr. Speaker, I'm in a very interesting position where it's not really my story to tell. It's the Aurora College's story to tell. It's the board of governors' story to tell. So just like last time when I it's not my story to tell. So my last time when I was in front of this House, I recommended to committee that they have Aurora College in front of them. They have done that. And I recommend that they ask Aurora College what their schedule is as far as their master plan for their facilities and also for their housing and what they are doing in order to achieve those goals. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I don't have any information at my fingertips right now as far as the you know, when these things will appear in the capital. I would love to get an update on that for committee, and I can commit to doing so. But, really, there's a lot of steps that need to happen before we end up with a bricks and mortar institution anywhere in the territory in addition to what we have right now. I know that in speaking to the board governors, their prime focus right now is student housing. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this point there have been a few delays in the project, and it's anticipated that there will be a delay in the May 2025 launch date that was originally published. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it would really be up to the college to let me know what their needs are versus what they're receiving from the department. As I have not received a request for additional funding in any formal capacity at this point, it's hard for me to speak to whether or not they have the resources that they need and what those additional resources might be.
In addition to the $8 million from the federal government, the $1 million a year over the last four years as well from the GNWT, there was also the staffing of the eight positions that did a substantial...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's other programs within the government that I think would really welcome a million dollars a year in order to run a transformation and to run a program. So currently, the Government of the Northwest Territories is giving $1.04 million to Aurora College. At this point, I have not had communication from the board of governors as to a requirement for additional dollars, but if they do provide me with that request, I would definitely sit down and talk to them about it.
The other piece of this is when you are at arm's length and you are working...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. So in the life of transformation, Education, Culture and Employment has funded an Aurora College transformation team of eight public servants who helped do a lot of the work in conjunction with Aurora College getting ready for this transformation of which has three phases, and there are roughly 80 milestones in that project and 66 of those were completed by the transformation team. The federal government kicked in $8 million for transformation, and, in addition to that, this government also put in $1 million a year...
