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 , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 22)

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I just want to make sure I was clear. Carryovers reflected on capital projects in here? There wouldn't be. This would be only the operations. So there wouldn't be any carryovers reflected here. I'll just stop there. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 22)

Madam Chair, let me put that to the deputy minister, please.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 22)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, if I'm understanding correctly I'm being asked if we would have a universal basic income, which a universal basic income means it's an amount paid to every single person regardless of their income status, regardless of their personal home household income, wealthy or otherwise, and that would then come from, of course, government coffers. So I just want to make sure that we're clear that universal basic income and guaranteed basic income are not necessarily the same thing. So let's start the conversation and make sure that we are talking about the same...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 22)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I actually purposely didn't try to say the name of the program earlier because I think I'm going to mispronounce it. But let me try. Wahilatoos is the name of the federal initiative. So this has come out even while we're waiting to see if the low carbon economy leadership fund will get renewed or well, when it will get renewed. Still hopeful on that. But this is what we've been directed to in the interim. Because that actually was, again, a significant source of funding that was helping the Government of the Northwest Territories to support programs...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 22)

Thank you, Madam Chair. So there are a significant amount of sunsets that are taking place, and that is where the cuts are coming from.

There has been some funding, $433,000 in funding, for new initiatives. So it just reduces the scope of what can what is possible under the Energy Action Plan right now. Obviously subject to perhaps seeing a renewal, hopefully seeing a renewal of the low carbon or the LCELF funding that the Member was mentioning but, yeah, thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 22)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, yeah, this is something that I thought a lot about in the last few years, had a lot of hope that there would be an improvement in morale over the last Assembly, and then somewhere between multiple waves of emergency events and lockdowns and evacuations, that became very challenging and folks became even more stretched. And we wind up in the last while with employees either unable to do their jobs because they can't go into their workplaces, then, you know, publicly getting maligned for that, and then in other cases being asked to do even more even when they...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 22)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly have not had those kinds of conversations with the federal government, Mr. Speaker, nor do I nor can I say, really, how receptive they would be. The direction that we seem to be getting of late on areas when we do try to push the federal government for some awareness of the continued need for diesel in the Northwest Territories, in the North in general, tends to not be one that is received very favourably. So certainly can look at an opportunity to bring that forward, noting the realities of the North and noting the fact that some form of diesel is still...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 22)

Thank you, Madam Chair. No, Madam Chair, that misunderstanding's definitely mine but I appreciate the kind words. So this is a reduction at this point in this area that there have been quite a number of studies over the last many years at a number of different locations, to study wind in particular. Some projects obviously have moved forward, some have come back positively and others have come back to indicate that there's not a capacity or potential. And so at this stage in time, this one is slated for a reduction. And obviously if there's opportunities that come up specific to other projects...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 22)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, that's exactly the kind of question that does need to be answered in this strategy, and it is one that I hope there's a lot of significant public interest in. I appreciate that there's political interest in it. Because that will be if we decide to move the needle on what the goals are and make them bigger and bolder, it means significant investment in energy infrastructure to achieve them, and it means being on top of new technologies and emerging technologies. So, for example, this afternoon speaking about renewable diesel but up to and including what...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 22)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the last update of data that I have dates back now to February, so I will have to go back and reconfirm. But as of February, there were already well into almost 5,000 applicants who had received their funding. There was still at that time, which, again, I acknowledge is several months ago, but there was still at that time about 112 evacuee income disruption applications that were in process or being reviewed, and another 120 or so on the evacuation travel support that were in progress or being reviewed. Often the same households or same applicant in these...