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. As I said, this program was reviewed last year. It's one that the department continues to closely monitor. Because our goal is to ensure that seniors’ home heating fuel is covered to, like I said, 80 percent. And so it's one that we keep a close eye on because we know that the cost of fuel fluctuates, and so we will continue to do that because we know it's an important program for seniors across the territory. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the seniors’ home heating subsidy is not intended to cover a hundred percent of someone's home heating costs. The goal of the program is to cover up to 80 percent of someone's home heating costs. That being said, if there are seniors that are spending 75 percent of their fixed income on home heating fuel, I would question if they're on the right program. In addition to the seniors’ home heating subsidy, there's also income assistance. If people aren't on both at the same time, so I question if somebody should be in a different program and would...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think with this case here, it's important to let the Member know, and let all parents know, that students still have access to clinicians in schools. In addition, I've had multiple conversations about this with my colleague from Health and Social Services. If a student needs to access a counsellor in their school and doesn't have the ability to travel to primary care to access a counsellor, that they can actually speak to the school. The student can even do that to maintain privacy. And the counsellor can come into the school. It's not a matter of the...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following documents: Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 12-20(1): Children's First Society Funding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this summer is going to be the time where residents are going to see the launch of the new program for persons who are seniors and persons with disabilities for income assistance. So there has been a long wait for that new program to be activated, and currently staff are training on that new program.
One of the things that I think is really exciting about this as well is to acknowledge administrative burdens and to reduce administrative burdens, staff at ECE have already been using the new forms with their existing clientele, and they've been doing...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member. I was taking notes and listening to the Member's statement and appreciate her sharing the lived experiences of members of her communities. Currently, the notice of assessment, if a client is unable to provide their notice of assessment to their client navigator, the client navigator is able to get the information directly from the Canada Revenue Agency. But, unfortunately, this is not available until after June. And so leading up to June, clients are required to provide proof of filing their taxes by April 30th and then able to also to work...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, through our Alberta curriculum, when we were working with Alberta on all of our curriculum across the territory, ECE monitored literacy levels through the annual administration of the Alberta achievement tests. Those tests were done in, I believe, grade 6 and grade 9, so that we would have kind of a baseline and then you would follow students and be able to test them again and see where they were at. And those began in 2007.
With our transition to BC, we will eventually have the BC foundational skills assessments across grades 4 and 7 and graduation...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my role as Minister of ECE within the college is oversight over the post-secondary system for the whole entire NWT. The Aurora College board of governors is responsible for the oversight of the operational matters of the college. So even that being said, ECE does still provide funding dollars for this work to get done. We -- I do have meetings with the chair of the board of governors so that they can identify to me what their priorities are as a board and so that we can work together in order to provide them with support that they do need that is...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. I guess what I can say is just some facts around some funding that has been received by the college. So through CIRNAC, the college did receive $8 million. In addition to that -- so, first of all, those monies were for planning through community and Indigenous government engagement and grants transformation, the centre for research excellence pilot, and also the Western Arctic Research Centre infrastructure. Those being the largest initiatives. So through that, the capital investment of the warehouse was $2.53...
