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

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 , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 150)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm not sure, Madam Chair, if I have the totals here in front of me. Let me check with the deputy minister first, please.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 150)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there had been a matter involving the other parties, what we call Project Co, the entity that was involved in building and running the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Line. They, under the project agreement, have the ability to seek compensation for what's called a supervening event. So that's an event that they may have claimed would have increased the associated costs of the project. What they were seeking was such that the GNWT entered into some discussions to try to determine if that could be settled rather than having to go all the way through a more formalized...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 150)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe there is. I don't have a link offhand but we can provide that together with some of the other commitments we've made today. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 150)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the P3 policy is separate; it wasn't part of the review that was done in looking at the fiscal responsibility policy so that it simply wasn't part of it. It's a different policy all together.

Mr. Speaker, at this point in time there's not any active work happening with respect to a P3. So this is not something that is you know, there's not an active concern around growing numbers of P3 projects. What we do have are the some projects that are ongoing that where there are operational expenses now because rather than investing huge amounts of sums at the...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 150)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the Member is correct. This was moved over to the following fiscal year, which is expected to be when that amount will be fully spent.

As for project timelines and activities, we are expecting to have this contract awarded this fall, which means it would then be being built and then implemented thereafter over the next it takes approximately two years and with a golive date to follow. So, you know, early in 2025.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 150)

Thank you, Madam Chair. So this is where on infrastructure supplementary appropriations there isn't a supplementary reserve for infrastructure. And as I said, I think there's some information that we do provide to committee that could stand a bit of a look at the terminology that's used to make that more clear because it wouldn't show there wouldn't be a net impact because there's nothing to be impacting upon. That said, Madam Chair, there is I mean, again well, I'll leave it at that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 150)

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, at this point the net impact doesn't have us going into any new debt on this one actually, Madam Chair, sorry, let me I think I'm looking at the wrong page. Let me direct that to the deputy minister.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 150)

Madam Chair, again, I don't have that level of detail of what the conservation approach might be. My understanding is that this is meant to help with the developing what candidate areas there are going to be. So I would leave that to a question for people over at employment ECC to provide further detail on, and I can obviously convey that to my colleague. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 150)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the fiscal policy review was something that is an internal policy looking at a way of evaluating what we do as a government and how we manage our budgets, how we design our budgets. It was completed by the fiscal policy division as the primary lead within the Department of Finance but also with input from some of the other departments that look at this type of work and that do this type of work, such as the comptroller general's office, the management board secretariat. We certainly did look at counterparts across other governments to see what they might do...