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.
Mr. Speaker, strengthening internal trade is essential to ensuring that businesses across Canada can grow, compete, and thrive. With the United States' decision to impose a 25 percent tariff on Canadian imports and the Canadian government's counter-tariffs, Canada urgently needs to strengthen our internal trade framework. Studies show that eliminating interprovincial trade barriers could add billions to Canada's gross domestic product annually, lower consumer costs, and improve supply chain resilience. The committee on internal trade is the place where federal, provincial, and territorial...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So absolutely, mutual recognition is something that we're fully committed to for the NWT's part of our participation within the committee on internal trade. And this also works into my colleague of infrastructure and the work that her department is doing. And so certainly we are absolutely committed to doing this work and are in the process of working towards it on that reconciliation and cooperation table. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Member for the question. So our BIP program is currently one of our exceptions under the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, and there's no plan to take away that exception that we currently have. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: The Annual Reports for the Education Bodies of the Northwest Territories for the 2023-2024 School Year, Volumes 1 and 2; Annual Report on Official Languages 2023-2024. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can do better. At the end of the fiscal. Aurora College annually operates the literacy outreach programs with $350,000 in funding. In addition to that, Inclusion NWT receives $85,000 annually in funding. So I can confirm the first part of that.
The second part of that, which is figuring out what to do next, is what is currently underway with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, but that program will still operate until the end of June. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regards to that specific program and the breakdown of that specific program, I would not have that information on hand. But I know that part of the presentation that Aurora College will be delivering tomorrow is in regards to the cost breakdown, and this would be a great opportunity to be able to ask those detailed questions of the chair and the president. I have passed along information to them that Members will want very detailed information and are very much looking to this presentation to answer a lot of questions, and so they intend to...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, those conversations occur on an annual basis when we go through our capital planning process. And I can also confirm for the Member that I have had conversations with the N'dilo DEA chair in regards to infrastructure as well. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, every year the Department of Education, Culture and Employment speaks with local DECs, DEAs, about what capital projects they want to put on the list and what it is that the school needs, and then the Department of Education, Culture and Employment works closely with the Department of Infrastructure to make sure that these projects are prioritized. As I said earlier today, we're not in a situation where we could do every single project across the territory in one year but certainly ensuring that at the end of the day we're working as hard as...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, certainly I would like to acknowledge the Member's statement from the beginning of the day today. We have 49 schools in the Northwest Territories, and they were large -- our infrastructure across the territory, including arenas, housing, and the rest, was largely built at the same time. So we certainly go through all of our schools and infrastructure and have to make difficult decisions on prioritization and look first and foremost at safety and accessibility, and then from there determine what we need to start with. But I certainly hear the...
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. And I may have misunderstood the question but if the question is if I could explain the engagement process that the government undertook in the 1970s, I would be hard-pressed to do so. Thank you.
