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 Chair. Maybe the Minister can just help me with the process here a little bit. Does it have to come to AOC before it goes online, and then, as soon as AOC sees it, does it immediately become online and available to the public? Thank you.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 23)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. No, I don't think it needs to be a new line item. I think that Health and Social Services has a really strong communication team who does a lot of great work. I think that this is something that we can just simply ask them to highlight in communities right now, given that people probably do need additional support in the home; not a new line item. My next question is in regard to with long-term facilities, I see that there is not a line item for languages here. Would language requirements or language needs within long-term care facilities be involved here, or...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 23)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. My first question is in regard to the respite fund under contributions. We have a lot of people in the Northwest Territories right now who are spending an unprecedented amount of time at home with people who require a lot of care, whether that's children with disabilities or adults with disabilities. Especially with people who are used to sharing the care of loved ones, now that everybody is at home, the need for respite care, I think, is probably greater than it was before, to be able to have that support in the home. Does the Department of Health and Social...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 23)
Thank you very much Madam Chair. I absolutely agree that NGOs are crucial in that sense. As you mentioned the NWT Disabilities Council, they end up being the ones actually delivering the programming. My question is: who provides the oversight of all these NGOs? Because sometimes they end up administering the same programs, whereas, really, we could be working together to make sure that we're offering different levels of care throughout our system of partnerships. Thank you.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 23)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I very much believe that child and family services is, given the changes that health and social services wants to implement, a form of preventative care because we've all seen research that says, when you invest in kids, when you invest in families, the benefits that come back to communities and the benefits that come back to your society are huge. I think my colleague from Yellowknife Centre once said, and she can tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure, she once said, for every dollar you invest in kids, your return is $13. I believe that was actually from...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 23)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I have a couple of questions for this page. It's a very expensive page in our book. It's very obvious that health has a lot of fabulous health and social programs, and one of the ones we've heard the most about in the last few years has been the child and family services program. I notice that the increase for the child and family services program in the budget this year is just under half a million dollars. I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to whether or not that is enough money for this program to cover what they would like to achieve with child and...
Can the Minister speak to what is the maximum amount available to an eligible business under SEED, and can an applicant seek funding under more than one of these entrepreneur support categories?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. In relation to my Member's statement today, I'd like to talk about the SEED funding. Is the department tracking how many applications for SEED funding are being submitted specifically as a result of COVID-19, and, if so, how many applications for COVID-19 SEED funding has ITI received, how many have been approved, and how much funding is associated with these approvals? Thank you.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 23)
Thanks very much, Madam Chair. Under operations expenditures summary for long-term and continuing care services, for contract services, the number kind of has quite a bit of movement from year to year. If we are looking at the 2018-2019 actuals, we see $850,000. If we move along to the main estimates for this year, we see $365,000 with quite a fluctuation between the two. I am wondering if the Minister can speak to that change in the budget item and where that comes from. Thank you.
