Caroline Wawzonek

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 116)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I think, you know, with respect to the administration of the program, that is probably a question best left to the department. I can certainly direct it to my colleague, or I can certainly undertake to ensure that, now that we are seeking to move this money forward, that the departments that are involved, both Infrastructure and ENR, are doing so mindful of the fact that we want to get the money out the door. So taking the comments around the availability of assessors into account when we do that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 116)

Thank you, Madam Chair. We are anticipating this is with one company. Thank you. It's for 45 days. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 115)

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 53, an Act to Amend the Liquor Act, be read for the second time.

This bill amends the Liquor Act to continue the Liquor Commission as the Northwest Territories Liquor and Cannabis Commission;

Include the regulation of cannabis in the Commission’s list of duties;

Reinforce the separation of enforcement and adjudication responsibilities under the act by removing the supervision of enforcement actions from the Executive Secretary’s duties;

Remove provisions disqualifying persons from licensing eligibility on the basis of...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 115)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this I think actually draws on the Department of Finance.

So when there's emergencies of this nature, emergencies of any nature, you know, there's certainly money that gets set aside in our supplementary reserve for requests and issues that come up over the course of a fiscal year. Individual departments, once they have their appropriation on April 1st, may have flexibility. You know, this is depending on what's going on in the department. Projects might get deferred. Different work might get deferred in order to have some flexibility in a budget and to...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 115)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, I should say thank you to the MLAs from the region who invited us there and invited me to attend and helped arrange some of the meetings that we had. It definitely it helps myself, it helps the department to have that hands on and have eyes on. You know, I my own I'm certainly not an expert so I'm hesitant to conclude that it is inevitable which businesses will or will not be experiencing impacts beyond what's available in the Disaster Assistance Policy. I mean, I can certainly say that there is, you know, some of the businesses were essentially...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 115)

Mr. Speaker, Environmental, Social, and Governance, or ESG principles, have become more prevalent over the past few years in the mineral resources industry, with investors, demographic groups, and the general public, demanding stronger ESG investments from business and industry.

A global movement towards ESG investment and social consciousness is good news for the Northwest Territories because we are leaders in ESG measures and performance. We are, in fact, already moving toward advocating for the next generation of ESG through an Indigenous lens, or ESGI, an approach that breaks down barriers...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 115)

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, Plain Language Summary for Bill 53, An Act to Amend the Liquor Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 115)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's not a standing or standalone program that offers support for lost wages or lost revenue. And as many will recall, early on in the COVID19 pandemic, both not only our government, the federal government had to be creating and crafting those types of programs sort of in the moment and in order to respond. So I can't say necessarily what type of additional programming or programs might become available, might need to be crafted. But I can certainly, again, indicate that we are in touch with the businesses in the community. We'll continue to do so. If...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 115)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first off, I do want to acknowledge the troubling times that are being faced by many businesses in Hay River. I think it's been mentioned a few times that several of us had the opportunity to attend to see what's going on for ourselves, and it's plainly obvious that there's quite significant impact to the community and to the business community there.

We are of course all working together as one government. That's why multiple Ministers did attend to bring to bear each of our perspectives. And ITI will continue working with MACA. MACA is the first point of...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 114)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I want to speak a bit about the opportunity I had to be on the committee. I was very grateful to be on the committee. It was an honour to be on with this committee dealing with this topic. It was an interesting I mean, I'm new to the Assembly, this is my first time here, but it was clear even so that this was something being done very differently to have both Members of Cabinet and other and MLAs all on one committee working together figuring out the process by which we would do that. So it wasn't just about what, you know, Cabinet would do, or what Ministers...