Caroline Wawzonek

Member Yellowknife South

Deputy Premier
Minister of Finance
Minister of Infrastructure
Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation

Caroline Wawzonek was first elected to the 19th Legislative Assembly in 2019 as the Member for Yellowknife South. Ms. Wawzonek served as Minister of Justice,  Minster of Finance, Minister responsible for the Status of Women and the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. In 2023, Ms. Wawzonek was acclaimed to the 20th Legislative Assembly and returned to Executive Council as Deputy Premier, Minister of Finance, Minister of Infrastructure and the Minister Responsible for the NWT Power Corporation.
 
Ms. Wawzonek holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Calgary (2000) and a law degree from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law (2005). Her academic journey included language studies in China and Taiwan, as well as legal internships in the Philippines and England. Born in Calgary, AB, she has called Yellowknife home since 2007.
 
After establishing her criminal law practice post-admission to the Law Society of the NWT, Ms. Wawzonek appeared in all levels of NWT courts and engaged in circuit court travel. She later joined Dragon Toner, expanding her practice to general litigation and administrative law until becoming a member of the 19th Assembly.
 
Since 2007, she has taken on leadership roles in the legal community, including the presidency of the Law Society of the Northwest Territories (LSNT), section chair for the Canadian Bar Association Northwest Territories Branch (CBA-NT), and committee membership in various working groups. Her community involvement extends to appointments in multiple Yellowknife organizations, and she received a national award in 2017 for her contributions to Canadian Women in Law.
 
Ms. Wawzonek, a mother of two, enjoys running, paddleboarding, and time outdoors.
 

Committees

Caroline Wawzonek
Yellowknife South
Member's Office

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Box
1320
Email
Extension
12177
Deputy Premier, Minister of Finance, Minister of Infrastructure, and Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation
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Minister
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Statements in Debates

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And first of all, I do want to commit that the human resources -- or the health recruitment unit that does -- is a shared responsibility between health and finance. More than happy to have them follow up if there -- if we can identify the specific programs that the Member's suggesting, we'll make sure they're following up and even just generally, perhaps, take an opportunity to see that we recruiting -- we do tend to recruit almost all, if not all, graduates from Aurora College, but if there's specifically some Indigenous focused programs elsewhere, that would be very...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it is a formal letter that is written. I don't have it here since I was not anticipating necessarily to speak to that with respect to the contents of the supplementary appropriation requests. I can say we did identify some of the key pressure points that we've seen over the last five years, the wildfires, for instance, flooding two years in a row, wildfires over the course of multiple years, the costs of those that are incurred often have to get carried and carried over while we are waiting for DFAA funding to come back in, and some of those costs are born...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm certainly happy to speak, again, a little bit to some of the circumstances that led to the proposal to have a $12 million over four years, so 48 over four years rather, 12 a year, and hopefully that can alleviate some of the concern or confusion.

What was in my mind, and I just couldn't find my notes from last week because, really, they were relating to my knowledge of this from being NTPC Minister, one of the reasons for selecting this option of doing the $12 million over four, it -- well, for one, it was the lowest rate impact that we were looking to...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there are, indeed, industry standards for public sectors in terms of the amount that should, you know, ideally be held both between being an owned facility versus being a leased facility. Mr. Chair, again, I don't have with me right now for the supplementary estimate document where we fall within that. My recollection was that we actually were falling within the industry standard but, again, I don't have that here to confirm. There is a significant difference as between Yellowknife in particular, where there is a different market for office space as compared to...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Not locum physicians if that's what you're seeking. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

There are, Mr. Chair. It's in the financial administration manual. I would suggest directing that to the deputy minister for some detail, please.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Yes.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, Mr. Chair, I'm happy to have the chance to say that we didn't necessarily, you know, lose money, but the budget was reduced in the hopes that they'd be able to move forward a little faster in terms of getting this -- getting a project off the ground that can reduce our lease space.

Currently, there are 72 percent of the total GNWT lease space is leased. There is 107 individual leases across all regions of the territory. Now, whether or -- the degree to which those are all individual, we have 82 with northern landlords, or 38 percent of our space; 25 of these leases...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, for this one, there certainly are some shortfalls being projected. Mr. Chair, let me direct that one over to the deputy minister and see if he can get that level of detail. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the -- some of the things that contribute to the credit rating, and the credit rating is what then allows us to then borrow at a good rate, have been things that have been cited, when I review them every -- whenever they come up with their updates, is the existence of the territorial formula financing from which we receive 70 percent of our revenues, so the fact that that exists and is relatively stable. And, you know, add to that the fact that another 10 or so percent of our revenues continue to also come from federal pots. Obviously, a little more variability, for...