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
Mobile
Minister
Email

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 87)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I don't have the project detail here. Let me see perhaps if Mr. Courtoreille has that available to him.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 87)

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the debt in question was expected to have come in under this current fiscal year and not last fiscal year, and that's what resulted in this. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 87)

Madam Chair, the Minister of ECE is eager to provide that detail.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 87)

Yes.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 87)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, Madam Chair, I do have a lot of information about the Mineral Resources Act and MARS. Of course I didn't bring necessarily my ITI materials. I can say, Madam Chair, there's a lot that's expected to take place in early 2022 on a high level. I was hoping to give a little more detail here, although, as I say, I wasn't necessarily anticipating to be answering the ITI level at that -- at that detail. But right now where we're at is that the Indigenous -- the IGCS, the Indigenous Governance Council, is working at an officials level with officials from ITI on the Mineral...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 87)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the adjustments and forecasting is continually being updated. So if, in fact, there's an increase in revenues again, then that certainly can start to impact our overall situation in terms of what would be required to undertake debt, particularly debt particularly, again, if our revenues continue to be lower and expenses continue to be higher. So, you know, the overall situation that the territory is facing hasn't drastically changed since, I think, the fall update that would have been provided, and certainly since the time of budget dialogs, it would have...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 87)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it was the Member from Yellowknife North who at one time told me we should be looking at the number of employees that a business has before we move too quickly on who to remove or who not to remove. But, Mr. Speaker, I am not in the habit, Mr. Speaker, of making commitments that singles out one particular business or one particular contract or one particular individual. This very much has been part of the review, very much will be part of where this goes next, is to define what is a northern business, who should be a northern business. That's a huge...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 86)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if I'm not mistaken, that infographic grew out of a series of questions here in the House maybe this time last year. I've also had positive responses to it. If we can improve it, I'm committed to doing that. So let me start by saying perhaps I'll check in with my colleague to see what gaps she sees, and we can continue to improve the report card that we have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 86)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's always been my intention and vision, and I've said this before, to make changes as we can. And when we saw that there were changes that were implemented with respect to the contracting terms over the last year to see what that might do, and we are already working on vendor performance management. So there's things underway already.

As far as what the next date for the next changes might be, I  my hope is that early 2022 some small things could start to be impacted. Again, I'm mindful that as this process has unfolded, a complementary process working...