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. Mr. Speaker, today I have questions for the Minister responsible for NTPC about greening I know, it's a shocker about greening our electricity mix without making rates less affordable than they already are.
One of the GNWT's main policy tools to green the electricity mix is net metering. But that policy isn't sustainable for ratepayers or for our 2030 Energy Strategy goals. A 2021 policy review found that by 2030, electricity utilities will be losing up to $2.7 million per year on net metering, and that's without going beyond the 20 percent cap on renewables...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 143)
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my concern is that this funding pot here is not actually providing people with the or maybe, sorry, let me rephrase that. This funding pot is not providing the department with the tools that it needs in order to stop the cycle between homelessness and incarceration. And I understand that there's programming involved in that, it's not just housing, but I don't think that this funding pot actually helps people access stable housing. And so if it's simply housing that people are looking for what I'm okay. People are leaving our correctional facilities and...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 143)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my understanding is that there are staff within Justice that will work with people to secure housing in order to step in and stop the cycle of corrections to homelessness back to corrections back to homelessness. And so if this is what is supporting people through that fund for housing and homelessness, I'm wondering how the $179,000 actually funds that process? Thank you.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 143)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I wanted to ask about the unchanged proportion of offender reintegration program. This line item, my understanding, remains at $179,000. I'm wondering if the Minister can provide a little bit more information about what this line item actually funds. Is it just in salaries? Is it specific to the costs of reintegration in society? I am wondering if the Minister can provide more information there, please.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 143)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So we sit here and we go through key activity after key activity as to, you know, where money's going to go and then, you know, later on as the dust settles and we look at public accounts, we see how dollars are actually spent. And one of the things that was noted is that the community justice key activity had the was the program with the highest sum of budgeted money that went under spent. And so how then does the Department of Justice identify how they're going to reallocate those dollars within their department? So I'm wondering if the Minister can speak...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 143)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm concerned about this one in the sense that and I know that the Minister and I have spoken both on the floor of the House and outside of the House in regards to the men's healing program. When we first started this Assembly, the men's it used to be the men's A New Day program. It transitioned from the way that it once ran and I'm not going to open that box again into the men's healing fund in the life of this Assembly. My concern is that what was once a much broader program is now a targeted program.
And my concern is that it is potentially...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 143)
Thank you so much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, the director, are they in directorate? Are they in community justice? Thank you.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 143)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my questions are in regards to the men's healing program. I note that the contributions remain unchanged, and I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to how many communities are supported by this program currently and the anticipated number of communities that will be supported by that program fund in the following fiscal year?
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 143)
Thank you, Madam Chair. So we have a plan, but we might not use that plan, is what I'm now hearing.
So if we have a plan but we might not use that plan, I'm guessing that some soul searching has already happened in order to kind of get to the point where we can say yes, we have a plan but we might not use that plan. And so I'm wondering if it is the intent of this Minister to kind of share with this House what lessons have been learned in the course of the last almost four years as this department has very much worked hard towards integrated service delivery and I have nothing but good things...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would have liked to have heard a yes, not a I want a yes, just a passionate yes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
My last question for the Minister is can the Minister clearly confirm whether our 18-kiloton reduction goal is attainable with only 20 percent renewables in diesel communities? Thank you.
