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. I would like to take the opportunity today to congratulate Yellowknife South constituent Margaret Henderson on being the recipient of the MACA Outstanding Elder Volunteer of the Year Award for 2021.
It was obvious from the words on her nomination form as to all the reasons she should be the recipient of this year's award, with examples of hard work that she has contributed to the Food Rescue Yellowknife since it began back in 2008.
I'd like to echo the praise we heard yesterday from the Minister of MACA acknowledging Ms. Henderson's contribution from the very earliest...
Mr. Speaker, I am not here to speak on behalf of the union. That would not be appropriate. It's a relationship that I have a great deal of respect for. So I'm not going to combat out and detail what their own reasons would be and be certainly seen to be speaking on their behalf.
Mr. Speaker, we are in a situation where in the course of a pandemic, we have held firm on not having cutbacks to our services and not having cuts to the public service. But to do that, we are running a lean operation. And so to be able to be offering any kind of additional bonuses and salary on top of the existing...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the public service annual report certainly is one place that we might be able to report on this. I have no concern in saying that we will definitely be able to report back, just as we are today, about the total number of residents who might be working either outside of the territory or who are working in some sort of remote arrangement and whether that is in the public service report or whether somewhere on our website. I will see that it does get published somewhere and inform the Members when we've made that decision as to what's the best place to do that...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the ability to work outside of the territory is meant to be for exceptional purposes only, and "exceptional" is really just that. It's, for example, if you have a child who has to get medical care, specialized medical care for a period of time that is not available here and you need to go care for your child, well, that's pretty exceptional. It is not for people who simply prefer to live somewhere else, who might have family that they'd like to see. It's not a matter of convenience. It is for exceptional purposes only.
Mr. Speaker, today is the day that the Northwest Territories tourism sector has been anticipating for nearly two years. I am happy to finally say that as of today, the Northwest Territories is welcoming back friends and visitors from near and far.
We all know that the Northwest Territories is a growing destination of choice for travelers from across Canada and around the world. In fact, in the year prior to the COVID19 pandemic, the territory had a record 120,000 visitors, contributing more than $210 million to its economy.
Mr. Speaker, the circumstances surrounding COVID19 have been...
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents: Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 20212022; Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 20212022; and the Northwest Territories Tourism 20222023 Marketing Plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my last answer, Mr. Speaker, these two properties were jointly owned previously so having them as one unit under one owner is not particularly unusual. They are both highgrade Tungsten properties. Tungsten, of course, is one of the 31 critical minerals and metals on Canada's critical metals list, and under current geopolitical circumstances that may well help make these properties particularly in greater value and incentivize a private owner.
Mr. Speaker, again, we are working with Canada on this; Canada having the ownership of Cantung and us having...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can go and look into the specific number the Member is quoting. My understanding is that when the GNWT purchased the Mactung asset, we did so and that became our asset. Canada, of course, owns the Cantung property. And at this point, the two parties tother are agreeing to market those assets as one and as such, as we go forward, there's nothing more owed to the GNWT by North American Tungsten. So again, I'll double check to confirm if there's some misunderstanding on what's on there, Mr. Speaker. At this point, we're proceeding with a process that's well...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So Mr. Speaker, the labour market supplement was something that we didn't have before. It does provide a tool. Given that the collective agreement is the bargaining document on which all of the salaries are based, all the recruitment any recruitment bonuses would be based, the total package of salary is based. So to go outside of that to offer something extra, we had to create this labour market supplement that would give us that proper tool or that basis on which to do that. In that policy, it does state that, of course, still the UNW remains the representative for...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, the Member's quite right. This certainly speaks to the experience we've all had during COVID19. But this was something that was considered even before that. It's a direction that a lot of the public service sorry, the human resources experts are starting to look at across Canada. We want to be a workplace that is keeping up with the direction of human resources approaches. We want to be a workplace that is considered attractive to bring people here and not so that people will leave and want to have that flexibility for folks who may be outside of a...
