Member Yellowknife South

Deputy Premier
Minister of Finance
Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation
Minister Responsible for Strategic Infrastructure, Energy and Supply Chains

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,  Minister 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
Extension
12177
Deputy Premier, Minister of Finance, Minister of Infrastructure, and Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation

Statements in Debates

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

Thank you, Madam Chair. Radiology services are an item that is actually contracted out and provided by Beam Radiology which is based in Calgary. This is done through a competitive procurement process through the NTHSSA and that contract, as I understand it, has been renewed, and there are increases in over and above what was in the previous contract, Madam Chair. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's things happening in an ongoing way. So some of the work under the manufacturing policy has if I'm not mistaken, has already been prepared and is already ready to go ahead with respect, for example, to the guidelines under the manufacturing policy. Those guidelines have been improved. And I will reconfirm as to their whereabouts on the website. I had understood they were going out and were being promulgated already.

With respect to the business incentive policy, one of the biggest issues is around defining northern business. I know this question's...

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

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, anything that certainly has been spent to date would be form part of, you know, either the public accounts or would certainly, you know, be able to be spoken to publicly here. I think the only challenge I'd run into is with respect to matters that are being procured in the future years. But and actually, Madam Chair, as I sit here, it would appear that I may have that.

To date we have spent $24,000, is the number I'm getting. So, again but let me I'm I think we can provide more information than that about this project generally by the project leads...

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

Thank you, Madam Chair. It was the Ledcor team cohort that was that is the other party. Thank you, Madam Chair.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this is a projected shortfall in the chemotherapy program that we have here at Stanton Hospital, and it's based on the actuals that we ran as of October and then extrapolated that to the end of this fiscal year. So based on where the program was at as of October 21st, it was expected that there would be this shortfall. The drug cost, I mean, it's twofold. It's partly the cost of the drugs and also the amount of usage by clients, by patients. Thank you, Madam Chair.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've had the pleasure of overseeing a number of different policies that have been reviewed and revised in the life of this Assembly. And I've actually had the opportunity to go back and say, you know, when do we go out and engage public and when do we take different types of approaches? And, Mr. Speaker, it depends upon the impact of the policy on members of the public. The greater the impact, the greater the anticipated interests, such as in the naming of a building which may well involve wanting to name it after an individual or after a particular...

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

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I have asked the very same question actually not so much of the folks of Finance but more from the folks at ITI, and I know that there is some effort underway to try and do a bit of parallel work but the online map staking program development depends very much on the regulations that it is then going to be applying. So what I understand the effort is right now is to try to put some work in parallel so that we're not entirely waiting for the final version of every regulation to be fully concluded with the Mineral Resources Act project before beginning the...

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

Thank you, Madam Chair. So there is $40,310,000 in federal or other revenue offsets. And just on the same vein, Madam Chair, in terms of money that is being offset to either prior or future fiscal years, there's $4.886 million. Thank you.

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

Madam Chair, I know there is a reserve for supplementary operations, Madam Chair.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair. So this was concluded as part of negotiation with the territorial medical association and resulted in some small retroactive amount, but also there's recruitment bonuses and there's an amount that is resulting from changes to the locum contract rates, and I'm certainly happy to provide some further breakdown of each of those. Well, $1.2 million to the contracts for physicians, standard physician contract rate, as well as $3.4 million just over in recruitment initiatives, and $3.1 million for locums, and then just over $700,000 is for retroactive amounts, again related...