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, I'm very happy to sit down with the Member. I'm very happy to meet over Teams, but travelling with a large contingency of people is not something that education, culture and employment has funds for. We try to do as much as we can virtually so that we can ensure that funding for programs go into communities, go into schools, and go to the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Member as well as the public that I take this very seriously. As a government and as a Cabinet, there's been changes that have been made government wide from this lessons learned but also specifically for water testing of our schools.
Specific for water testing of our schools, we worked with the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer to establish a testing protocol territory wide for all schools in the Northwest Territories.
In addition to how we move forward as a government, we have also implemented project charters so that we...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, when I'm talking about competing interests in some communities, that is relevant to some of these conversations, and so that's why I've asked to make sure that all of the interested parties are on the same page before picking one over the other because I think in some instances there's an opportunity for collaboration in some of these communities. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we've certainly received interest from multiple communities in regards to the community learning centres. In some communities, the answers and the next steps have been easier than others. So, for example, if we have a community learning centre that's found in a school already and the school needs that infrastructure returned for their higher capacity, we've done that already. In other communities where there's school infrastructure improvements going on, we have maintained the presence of students in the community learning centre in order to...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the 19th Assembly an extensive review of the income assistance program was done by Education, Culture and Employment, and the changes that we saw take place last year were the result of that work. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, Happy Small Business Week. Let us recognize and celebrate the entrepreneurs who drive our economy and enrich our communities.
Small businesses are the backbone of the Northwest Territories. Whether it is recent graduates and newcomers bringing fresh ideas and technologies, Indigenous people keeping cultural traditions strong, or long-time Northerners sharing decades of experience, these businesses reflect the values, cultures, and aspirations of the people who live here.
Mr. Speaker, small businesses are woven into the fabric of everyday life in the North. They fix our furnaces, fly...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents: Prosper NWT 20 Years of Bringing Greater Prosperity to NWT Businesses and Communities 2024-2025 Annual Report; Prosper NWT 2025-2026 Corporate Plan Priorities and Actions, and Strategic Plan April 2025 to March 2029 Prosper NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Industry, Tourism and Investment is involved in the increase of infrastructure both within its department but then also by the opportunity I have to work with my colleagues. So specifically for the Deh Cho region, there's infrastructure when it comes to tourism. That's a program that is housed within ITI. Then when it comes to housing for example, the Minister and I do work together on ideas for how we can grow a skilled workforce. And we've got a couple that we've been pairing up on that we're still baking that cake, Mr. Speaker.
Luckily, it's the same person. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, in regards to what ITI is doing to streamline access to programs and services, we have migrated all of our funding programs under the same grants and contributions policy for consistency. We also have regional decision-making as far as our grants and contributions go. I am happy to say that a significant amount of funding flows both from ECE and ITI and also Prosper NWT across the regions, and as far as Prosper NWT is concerned, actually 83 percent of dollars from Prosper flow outside of Yellowknife. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when I was asked for meetings, I certainly was able to attend them and happy to do so, but for the most part these meetings happened between officials, because a lot of the times, the information that's being requested is operational and fairly in the weeds. People are looking to understand the cost of operating these buildings and more finer details about the infrastructure itself. Thank you.
