Caroline Wawzonek

Députée de Yellowknife Sud

Circonscription électorale de Yellowknife Sud 

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

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
Mobile
Ministre

Déclarations dans les débats

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the projections obviously do get -- I think the Members will appreciate that they are being done continually, and particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, they were being redone every so many months. That will continue throughout the time of the pandemic because the pandemic has impacted on the government's position quite significantly, which is in no short order why we wound up with increasing the borrowing limit when we did in the first place.

I think at this point, Madam Chair, it would be appropriate to say that we will continue to do those updates...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Thank you, Madam Chair. By doing this joint project, that is really meant to alleviate both sides of a concern, which is to ensure that staffing processes remain fair and compliant with best practices and with transparent processes, while also ensuring the expertise within the client department, in this case the health department. Hopefully, if the unit does achieve the targets that are being set to increase recruitment and retention of healthcare workers, then perhaps that is a question that I will be coming back to in time as to, if this is, in fact, successful, what that might mean for...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Madam Chair, if I could perhaps suggest the deputy minister is a better place to explain the supplementary reserve, please.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Only to acknowledge that this isn't in the priority document that we came up with as a government or as a collective 19 Members, but certainly all of us have to assist constituents. Those of us in Cabinet have to receive the requests from constituents, so the challenges being discussed or presented by the Member are not lost, I don't think, on anyone here, and they are certainly not lost on me. As I said, I also agree that the eServices work is very exciting and, yes, it was not by accident that I wanted to make sure that we had the chief information officer here...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

As I said, there is right now an expression of interest open really to explore what options there might be, to see whether it's possible or how it would be possible to increase and improve cellular coverage on the highways in the Northwest Territories. Once we have that information in hand, I will certainly be sharing it with my colleagues in the Legislative Assembly, with a view to seeing, again, what we can do to improve coverage for all of the territorial highways. However, again, the first step is to get the information for that first stretch and to see what that can bring to us as some...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

I have confirmed that is correct. That's not in the document here before us. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Thank you, Madam Chair. That item, Madam Chair, falls under the women's directorate and the Minister responsible for the Status of Women. I expect that the committee's position on the best location for that is, in fact, that it should be over in the executive and not in finance, Madam Chair. Meanwhile, it just so happens that, as Minister responsible for the Status of Women, I can say that there is work under way on the act, and I can commit to getting confirmation of whether or not it will be on target to be introduced as planned. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Fiscal Responsibility Policy really doesn't speak to operations and maintenance budgets of any of the infrastructure projects that are at issue. It speaks to the funding of the infrastructure project itself, so it wouldn't be reflected in the operation of the asset, whether that is a P3 asset or otherwise. Obviously, it seems that perhaps there needs to be a further briefing or discussion around the Fiscal Responsibility Policy and what it includes, but the fact that it doesn't include the operations of an asset that happens to be a P3 is not, I would suggest, the...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Thank you, Madam Chair. There certainly was an expectation. I had an expectation that we would bringing some of our bundles of services online under the eServices portal this month or imminently. I think that, in fact, there has been identified a need to push that date back a little bit, but again, since we have the chief information officer here, I might ask him to give us the latest update, please.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Finance is well aware that the territories, including the Northwest Territories, are certainly behind some of our other provincial colleagues, anyways, in Canada in terms of providing cellular coverage on highways. In being aware of that, we are beginning to take steps to find out what options there may be available, to explore what can be done to expand the coverage. The simple reality, Mr. Speaker, is there is no private market for this. There is no way of earning any sort of revenue or profit on this. For this to go forward, there would have to be...