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.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the labour market supplement was a policy tool that was developed, firstly, in consultation with the union.
In terms of what choice was made around which workers or which specific positions would first be would have the opportunity to utilize this policy, that was a choice made by the Department of Health and Social Services who was applying that policy. So there's a number of factors that are within the policy as to what types of positions should should qualify for what is an exceptional an exceptional tool, an exceptional that's being used to enhance...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Madam Premier. Mr. Speaker, we're always looking for opportunities. We are happy to work with any proponent, whether that's as a pathfinder of our own processes and our own regulatory processes, whether it's as a pathfinder of understanding what the federal processes might be. Mr. Speaker, obviously, for I shouldn't say obviously, but for any larger scale programs they are typically on the mineral resources side, they would involve often IBAs, SEAs, social economic agreements, impact benefit agreements, and so certainly to the extent that they're able to...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the government renewal initiative was never intended to be an expressed budget cutting initiative or government jobs cutting initiative. It has always been an effort to say, you know, that we look at it having an over $2 billion budget and yet continue to see needs, continue to see challenges in various you know, in various programs or services, and so what we wanted to do was to take a step back and say, look, what are we doing with $2 billion that can better align with needs, priorities, values. Are there programs that we know are successful that could...
Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to just confirm that I'm being heard? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
So I am quite conscious of the fact that there's been a reduction in the GDP over the last couple of years. We've obviously been through the pandemic and certainly in the last two years, that has been the predominant reason for that. Nevertheless, I think everyone's heard me say that we were in challenging times long before the pandemic and that we had to start looking at our economic situation. So I'm happy to have this question. Mr. Speaker, there's a couple of things.
I'm not on mute on my end, Mr. Speaker, but I do apologize. It does seem that I have a number of things in front of me and people are buzzing me actively to tell me that I've done this incorrectly.
So Mr. Speaker, I do have another first reading of bills here. It is the Bill 50, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 20212022 that would also be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 49, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 20212022 to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, that was a yes. Again, I'm confident that the folks that are applying are going to be going through the regulatory process so we will amend the 20232024 applications to be clear about that. And let me throw another yes out there.
We will again, for 20232024, happy to make it very clear that you can't have outstanding debts to the government if you're applying. That, again, that's already the case. The forms may not be express in that regard, and there's no harm in making that very clear, that anyone that's going to be getting funding from the government...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there has been an evaluation of the program done in June of 2020. I know some of that information and some of the matrices that go with it have been shared with committees. No, it has not all gone out to the public but that's not necessarily unusual. Not every evaluation or program review that is done by the GNWT necessarily goes public. In fact, it would be unusual for it to be otherwise. So that said, I'm certainly happy to take this away and take a look at, perhaps as the Department of Finance who would be more of the lead in terms of their evaluations...
