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, Mr. Speaker. Today, I originally wanted to talk about the power and resilience of community. Through floods, the schoolbased COVID outbreak and the devastating loss of family, this month is a testament to how Northerners support one another through adversity. But what this government needs to hear now is how they COVID outbreak communication jeopardized the contact tracing, testing, containment, and commitment of both staff and NWT residents.
In May, over a thousand people found themselves suddenly selfisolating from potential COVID exposure at schools, restaurants, and children's...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. As we are over one calendar year into the COVID19 pandemic, can the Minister provide a copy of the exemption policy document used to guide selfisolation exemption decisions, and the number of exemptions per week for the last three months, the category for grounds for exemptions, the percentage breakdown between exemptions granted to residents versus nonresidents, and the percentage of exemptions granted for personal versus essential versus commercial purposes. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad that the Minister mentioned "lessons learned" because my next question is about lessons learned and how does the Minister intend to ensure that lessons learned are captured from this outbreak so that we can better prepare how we will communicate future ones. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a lot of the work that we're discussing as wanting to put forward from the standing committee on social development has to do with being able to change policies so that we can see real change in housing in the Northwest Territories.
Some of those policies are in the housing corporation, but some of them are in the Department of Education, Culture, and Employment. Some of them are in Finance.
And so I'm wondering based on the timeline that the Minister just gave us as the end of the assembly, if the Minister is willing to...
Mr. Speaker, I think I'd like to report something to the Red Tape Working Group. Right now and I understand what the Minister is saying, and I appreciate they're doing a review on the income assistance policies. It's very much needed. But hanging on to a piece of a policy throughout a review that really isn't serving the people of the Northwest Territories just doesn't make sense to me. We have over 900 people on our wait list right now, and not all of those 900 people need public housing.
For somebody to have to walk down the block and in Yellowknife, it's about a sixblock trek...
Mr. Speaker, the reality of housing in the North is dire. NWT housing problems are well above the national average while funding for housing has decreased both federally and territorally. We have heard multiple times as GNWT cannot solve the NWT's housing problem alone and that the key to northern housing success is partnership. To foster these partnerships, our government needs to first create space for them.
Mr. Speaker, the GNWT's policies and regulations need to harmonize to support the priorities of the people of the Northwest Territories. But instead we have multiple policies that work...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I guess I just disagree with the Minister on this one because we don't have enough public housing stock in order to put people in. So whether or not we're pretending we don't want to spend it because we want to put people into public housing, we don't have the public housing units. And so whether or not we want to spend it, we're still spending that money. We're just creating red tape in the process of spending it.
My next question for the Minister, though, is private sector and nonprofits and Indigenous housing providers want to work with the...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture, and Employment.
Education, Culture, and Employment income assistance policies not only play a key role in caring for Northerners, but they also play a key role in housing Northerners.
So I'm wondering if the Minister of Education, Culture, and Employment will remove the requirement that NWT income assistance applicants must add their names to the NWT Housing Corporation housing wait list, public housing wait list. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. Today, American President Joe Biden announced a transportation-focused, long-term economy recovery plan. During the Great Depression here in Canada, the federal government funded highway construction to stimulate the economy. In anticipation of our federal government's plan to unveil its budget on April 19th, I would like to talk about roads, specifically the Mackenzie Valley Highway, or what I like to call "the forgotten leg of the Trans Canada Highway."
The Trans Canada Highway runs through all 10 Canadian provinces from Victoria to...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and relate to vacant housing units.
Can the Minister provide, as of March 31, 2021, the number of vacant housing units by program, by community; and
For each vacant unit, as of March 31, 2021, can the Minister state how long each has been vacant?
