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, currently all of our regional district education councils and district education authorities each have their own literacy programs that they employ within their schools. In addition to that, our NWT adapted curriculum, through our English language arts curriculum, is also conducive to pedagogy for learning to read for our NWT students as well. ECE does plan to transition the adapted NWT version to BC's school curriculum and the implementation of BC's large-scale assessment tools as well. And these will be an integral part of improving student...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in 2012 was the first program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies Literacy Survey. And the second such survey, in order to provide kind of the second baseline of what that would look like, was launched in 2022. Unfortunately, at that time it was identified that it would cost around $5 million for the territories across Canada to participate in that survey. So the three territories did not participate in the survey. And currently CMEC, along with Statistics Canada and the organization for economic cooperation and development and the three...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can make a commitment to the Member to follow up with the chair of the board of governors for sure. When I previously met with the chair of the board of governors and asked what their priority was, they identified their priority as housing. Not for assistance with transformation. And so I can go back to the board of governors and ask if -- where they're at, and I can reflect on the appearance before committee because I think that there was some information that was inconsistent with information that I have as well so I think it's important that we align...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And my apologies to interpreters, not a great start out of the gates. I was speeding right through that last one. So I will slow down.
Mr. Speaker, thank you to the Member. So to start off, we've already missed some milestones as the Member referred to in their Member's statement. So I do have intentions of reissuing and working with the existing board of governors on the strategic mandate document with them. I will be issuing a letter shortly here that -- because the existing one expires in July, so shortly I'll be issuing a letter calling on the board of governors to...
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...
