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, 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.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do our best to make sure that we have an idea of, first of all, where people are at, what their goals are, and how we can support them to get there. This program is just now entering into its second year of being the new directive by Education, Culture and Employment in its current form, and that's not information that I have in front of me here, nor information that we would have had the opportunity to collect and analyze so young into the infancy of this next program. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the biggest change that occurred with the changes that were made in regard to income assistance, in regards to pathways to employment, was the ability of residents who are on income assistance to keep an increased amount of earned income, so that's -- they've increased it to $500 per adult plus 25 percent of income over that. And so what that does is it provides people a grace period to re-enter enter the workforce where they're not going to get clawbacks. And so it's a safety step for residents who are on income assistance and a critical part for...
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 28, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, No. 2, be read for the third time. And, Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, we've divided our approach to a one-stop shop into two phases. The first phase will be an online presence and the second phase would be working towards a physical presence. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the question from the Member. So this would be bringing together all the stakeholders within the regulatory system so that being the GNWT as well as our regulatory boards as well as the federal government, so we want to make sure that we're working closely with the federal government to understand how we fit within, for example, their major projects' office and the way that they're driving projects forward. So we're looking at the end of next calendar year for that. Thank you.
