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, the number certainly fluctuates year to year and as different diamond mines get closer, for example, to closure, the types of businesses they're bringing up on to site and the amount of them does tend to decline, so that is a number that is certainly in flux year after year. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the royalties I believe the Member is referring to are held by the federal government. I believe he's referring to those specific ones. Certainly, I'm always happy to do what I can within my role as Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Also happy to work with the department to review the initiative and point out different ideas of how we can all work together. I'm also happy to connect the Member with private institutions here in the Northwest Territories who have gone through the accreditation process of some of their programming and...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to make an assumption that we're talking about NORTRAN based on the Member's Member statement for today. I'm certainly very happy to sit down with the Member and discuss NORTRAN specifically, for sure. Education, culture and employment definitely has a different workforce development programs and labour market programs that individuals, employers, and organizations and communities can apply for and would also be happy to specifically also work with education, culture and employment along with the Member to be able to have a conversation...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, from the original test numbers, it was isolated to those three schools that had the high numbers. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I meet twice a year with our education body leaders, and we do that in the spring and then again in the fall. That meeting is happening in mid November. And that's an opportunity to have really candid frank conversations with all the leaders, superintendents, and chairs, about how the program is going, and I'm very clear at every single meeting that I expect and ask for updates on everybody's programs and how it's rolling out because the mental health of our students is incredibly important.
In addition, Mr. Speaker, we also have our education...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, just to acknowledge the Member is correct. So while health and social services provides services that are clinically based, education, culture and employment acquired funding to focus more on the prevention side. And I can confirm for the Member, yes, I agree with the Member, there needs to be a transparency and public awareness component to this. And as it exists right now education bodies are expected to report annually on the school-based mental health and wellness programming through their planning and accountability frameworks. This...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can look at the capital standards to see if new school builds that are designated as muster points in the community for emergency purposes do have the requirement that they have backup generators. And then I can also commit to getting a comprehensive list of the status of existing school infrastructure for the Member as well. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Annual Report on Official Languages 2024-2025; and, Aurora College Corporate Plan 2025-2026. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is absolutely right, our Indigenous development corporations do work very closely with diamond mines and do hold some of the primary contracts of our diamond mines, including Tlicho Investment Corporation, Det’on Cho, and it -- sorry, North Slave Metis Alliance as well as Lutselk'e's Development Corporation as well. And I do sit down and speak regularly with the heads of these development corporations about what work they're currently doing on site, what work they're projected to do on site, and also what other branches of economic...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have approximately 1,400 NWT residents that are directly employed by our diamond mines in the Northwest Territories. In addition to that, we also have staff who work for private contractors that are subcontractors up on site. Thank you.
