Députée de Yellowknife Sud

Première ministre adjointe
Ministre des Finances
Ministre responsable de la Société d’énergie des Territoires du Nord-Ouest
Ministre responsable de l’infrastructure stratégique, de l’énergie et des chaînes d’approvisionnement

Caroline Wawzonek a été élue pour la première fois à la 19e Assemblée législative en 2019, comme représentante de Yellowknife Sud. Elle a été ministre de la Justice, ministre des Finances, ministre responsable de la condition de la femme, et ministre de l’Industrie, du Tourisme et de l’Investissement. En 2023, Mme Wawzonek a été élue par acclamation à la 20e Assemblée législative et a réintégré le Conseil exécutif en tant que première ministre adjointe, ministre des Finances, ministre de l’Infrastructure et ministre responsable de la Société d’énergie des TNO.

Mme Wawzonek a obtenu un baccalauréat ès arts de l’Université de Calgary en 2000 et un diplôme en droit de la faculté de droit de l’Université de Toronto en 2005. Son parcours universitaire comprend des études de langues en Chine et à Taïwan, ainsi que des stages de droit aux Philippines et en Angleterre. Mme Wawzonek est née à Calgary (Alberta) et habite Yellowknife depuis 2007.

Une fois admise au Barreau des TNO, Mme Wawzonek a mis sur pied sa propre pratique du droit pénal et a plaidé à tous les échelons du système judiciaire des Territoires du Nord-Ouest, et s’est souvent déplacée dans les collectivités ténoises à cet effet. Elle a ensuite intégré le cabinet d’avocats Dragon Toner, élargissant sa pratique au litige général et au droit administratif jusqu’à ce qu’elle devienne députée de la 19e Assemblée.

Depuis 2007, Mme Wawzonek a assumé de nombreux rôles de leadership au sein de la communauté juridique : elle a notamment été présidente du Barreau des Territoires du Nord-Ouest et présidente de section pour la division des Territoires du Nord-Ouest de l’Association du Barreau canadien, et a participé à divers groupes de travail. Son engagement envers la collectivité l’a amenée à œuvrer dans de multiples organisations de Yellowknife et, en 2017, elle a reçu un prix national soulignant le travail de femmes canadiennes œuvrant dans le domaine du droit.

Mère de deux enfants, Caroline Wawzonek aime courir, faire de la planche à pagaie et passer du temps à l’extérieur.

Committees

Caroline Wawzonek
Yellowknife Sud
Bureau

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Boîte
1320
Extension
12177
Vice-premier ministre, Ministère des finances, Ministre de l'Infrastructure, Ministre responsable de la Société d'énergie des Territoires du Nord-Ouest

Déclarations dans les débats

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left, Bill MacKay as the deputy minister of finance. And on my right, Mandi Bolstad is the deputy secretary to the financial management board.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the intention around fairness. Mr. Speaker, I -- again, without -- I don't have the details of the procurement here in front of me, as I normally wouldn't. That is a level of operations that Ministers would be inappropriate to get my hands involved in and certainly not here. So, again, I do appreciate the concern for fairness. I certainly can commit that I'll double down on saying to the department that we want to ensure that we are being fair and that we are maintaining and adhering to all of the procurement principles that we have. But beyond that, Mr...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 61)

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Bill 30, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures and Borrowing Authorization) No. 1, 2025-2026, be read for the second time.

This bill makes supplementary appropriations for operations expenditures and borrowing authorization for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we did acknowledge the email that I got this morning from the Member and thank you for bringing this to my attention.

As with any other procurement matter, I'm not going to be putting these details on the floor of the House. I have already tasked the department to look into it and when we to get a matter where there's some concerns around a procurement scoring, much like a human resource matter, there are avenues and channels by which we can have our staff review it, can have it go through a review. And certainly, until that's been done, Mr. Speaker, I'm not going...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 61)

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Inter-Activity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 (April 1st, 2024 to March 31st, 2025). Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I do every year after Youth Parliament, today I am bringing the words of the youth representative from Yellowknife South to this House, ensuring all Members and the public hear the fresh perspectives, innovative solutions, and policy insights reflected in the voice of our youth. And so, Mr. Speaker, this year, Yellowknife South, who was represented by Lauren Tordiff, and these words are hers:

As young people, we inherit the challenges of today and the responsibility to create solutions for tomorrow. If we want to tackle issues like the high cost of living, we must ask...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely, Mr. Speaker, and I will say one important thing that's come on this project is that very typically departments do community readiness working plans on large scale infrastructure projects and would typically do them a year or so out from construction.

Mr. Speaker, the communities in the Sahtu have been are very clear. They want that work starting now, and so I can say we have put an application in to the federal government to realign some of the ICIP money that is supporting the Mackenzie Valley Highway so that we can get the working groups for these readiness...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are waiting to hear back from the federal government. We do have an application in for the whole funding. The importance of having 100 percent public dollars on this is that it means that it doesn't go on the ratepayers. It doesn't add to people's costs of power which, of course, are as I said earlier today, the highest in Canada. So it's very important, as the Minister responsible, that we are not putting this on the backs of ratepayers. Even though we want to ensure they have sustainable and reliable energy, we don't want people to be paying for costs they just can...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is actually a GNWT project, and so in that sense there is a plan. There certainly is a strong desire to see an opportunity to run a transmission line from just outside of Hay River through -- past Kakisa and up into Fort Providence that would -- that represents -- that extra bit would represent about 15 percent of our total emissions and obviously a significant reduction on reliance of diesel which is very volatile prices to the residents in those regions. So there is this plan in the way. It already has regulatory approval to get to constructions. We...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This was a question that came up, I believe, in the last Assembly, if not earlier as well, and I can say that the Department of Finance was asked and did reach out to counterparts in Saskatchewan to better understand the SGI model, to learn whether or not it could be applicable here or brought about to the Northwest Territories. Obviously, as a fairly small jurisdiction, very small population and very small revenue base, creating a program of insurance would be next to impossible as it would not give a sufficient base of paying in in order to be able to pay out. And so...