Katrina Nokleby

About Katrina: Geological engineer turned politician

Links to information of interest to Great Slave constituents

Born and raised in British Columbia, Katrina graduated from UBC in 2001 with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Geological Engineering. After graduation, she spent time working with young people, teaching English in South Korea, and travelling through Japan, China, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, eventually moving to Yellowknife in 2006. Yel

For more than 12 years, Katrina worked as a consultant in the environmental, earthworks, and ice engineering fields, travelling extensively to sites throughout the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and the Yukon.

Throughout her career Katrina has worked on the Giant Mine Remediation Project in several capacities, including being responsible for overseeing all environmentally related work onsite.

For more than a decade Katrina has served on various elected bodies and not-for-profit groups in the territory. As a Director with the YWCA she has become more informed on the issues facing women, children, and families in the territory as they struggle with domestic violence, food insecurity, and the cost of living. Katrina often mentors young women entering the engineering and geoscience professions and has served as a Guide Leader with the Girl Guides of Canada since 2007.

Katrina believes in the adage you can't be what you can't see, and it's important to her to be a role model to interest young people in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Taking that philosophy to the next step, Katrina announced her intent to stand as a candidate for the Great Slave constituency in the 2019 NWT Territorial Election. She attended campaign school for women and ran a tough campaign against a downtown business owner.

“I’m a project manager and a problem solver, and I want to use my wide range of northern experience to help the people of the Northwest Territories prosper,” she told the media.

“Yellowknife is my home and I love the North. I want to ensure that the NWT is on a path towards a sustainable economy while addressing the social issues we are facing.

Katrina won 53-per-cent of the vote in Great Slave on Oct. 1, 2019 and was sworn in as MLA on Oct. 11.

In that historic election, the NWT Legislative Assembly went from being the least gender-balanced legislature to the most gender-balanced in all of Canada.

Katrina was subsequently chosen by other MLAs to be part of cabinet — five of seven MLAs on the Executive Council, including the premier, were women — and served as Minister of Industry, Tourism & Investment and Minister of Infrastructure.

Katrina’s selection for cabinet was hailed by the resource sector, and she made headlines across Canada. But after a tumultuous time, during which the straight-talking politician and rookie cabinet minister suffered the loss of her mother and then saw the COVID-19 pandemic take a great toll on businesses and industry, Katrina was removed from cabinet in August 2020. She is now a member of the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight.

“I’m actually glad to now sit on the other side, because I can speak my mind,” Katrina told the media. “And I can hold these people to account.”

Katrina believes a Polytechnic University would attract new people to the territory and upon graduation, many of these students would stay and continue with their research and work.

As Great Slave borders the Yellowknife Centre constituency, Katrina believes the socio-economic situation in the downtown core has a major impact for her constituents. She would like to see an addictions treatment centre established in the NWT that includes aftercare programs and family trauma counselling.

And here's how you find Katrina:

Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly
L’Assemblée Législative des Territoires du Nord-Ouest

PO Box 1320 | Yellowknife, NT | X1A 2L9

1 (800) 661-0784 ext. 12186

Email: greatslave@ntassembly.ca

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