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, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, one of the things that Health and Social Services introduced this year from headquarters are mental health subscription boxes. But these boxes, which I believe in September the theme of the box was suicide prevention, these boxes are not made available to people in healthcare centres or in hospitals. And so I'm wondering if that is a change that the Minister is willing to make? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
In June of this year, I asked the Minister a series of questions in regards to people who presented at our hospitals and healthcare centres with suicide attempts or suicide ideations. And the Minister committed to taking my comments and concerns and asks around the supports that are provided to people away and into account and considering them. And so I'm wondering what changes have occurred to supports or responses to suicide attempts at our healthcare centres and hospitals in...
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the reason I started this conversation by asking to speak to the Minister of Health and Social Services was because I wanted to find out if there was an avenue for funding for what youth are looking for in their communities potentially through there. So the department of health has their suicide prevention fund, and currently to access that fund, you have to be with an NGO, you have to be with an Indigenous government. There's a list of about four or five places or people, rather, that can access that. But youth specifically, as individuals...
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Madam Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services put together the Child and Youth Care Counsellor Program, and this is a program that came out of actually talking to youth and finding out what they wanted and really having that conversation about mental health and how to fill that need. Given where this program is at now, I'm wondering what kind of work Health and Social Services is doing to evaluate this program? Thank you.
WHEREAS Tabled Document 68119(2), Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 2619(2): Report on the Child and Family Services Act – Lifting Children, Youth and Families: An All of Territory Approach to Keeping Families Together, has been tabled in this House;
NOW THEREFORE I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Tabled Document 68119(2), Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 2619(2): Report on the Child and Family Services Act – Lifting Children, Youth and Families: An All of Territory...
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, does the Minister set the agenda for each of the meetings, or does the Minister work with the youth to set the agenda for the meeting? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, we put this together today to present to the government for immediate responses that the government is able to do to provide to communities across the Northwest Territories. We look to Tuktoyaktuk and the example that they set by sitting down and meeting with youth, and youth immediately called on actions that pertained to leaders in community, so being able to sit down and speak to role models and, more importantly, also spoke to activities that youth could immediately access to stay busy and find healthy ways to sit down together to we...
Madam Speaker, we live in a time where we have outpaced our demand for mental health professionals. I get calls from constituents unable to put their names on waitlists for youth psychologists and concerned by the demand on inschool ones. But if our youth aren't speaking with professionals, then who are they speaking with?
Suicide is a common conversation among our youth. In the NWT, roughly 160 to 180 people use hospital services every year following suicide attempts. Some of these people are youth and some were brought in to emergency by their peers. In North America, 19 out of 20 suicide...
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
The Government of the Northwest Territories provides services to treat underlying medical conditions that cause infertility.
What medical conditions are approved?
I have constituents who have underlying medical conditions requiring treatment before fertility treatment is available, and it is not supported by the GNWT. So Who decides what conditions are recognized and which ones are not?
If a fertility specialist identifies a condition that needs to be addressed before in vitro...
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, there are 30 spots every year available at the Aurora College nursing program. Every year there are Indigenous students who partake in it, and there are northern students who partake in it. Right now there are also people who are NWT residents who are not considered an Indigenous student or a northern student. They're a southern student because they have not lived more than half their life in the Northwest Territories. If there are spots still remaining in the nursing program, as in we have not met our max of 30 students, I'm wondering if...
