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, Madam Chair. This is the contributions section here, so this is detailing, I believe, money that is going direct to, for example, the maker spaces in contrast to the money that would be directed to a position that is there to support the work of the department, broadly speaking. Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry, that would be the $350,000. Thank you.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 66)
Thank you, Madam Chair. That is a BDIC-specific item, and I know that that was one of the questions they looked at when they gathered together in January. I had emphasized to them the fact that people will need the answer to that in advance of the fiscal year. I would like to just confirm where they landed on that, and I will commit to getting back to the Member. I think I will have that answer by our next sitting dates. Thank you.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 66)
Madam Chair, the department worked very much in conjunction, in collaboration, with the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer last spring and through the season to ensure that the parks reopened safely. In some ways, that foundation is already there and the relationships are already there, and the relationships are already built. I am quite confident that everything that can be done to reopen as safely and as fulsomely as possible is and will be done. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 66)
Thank you, Madam Chair. We are, right now, working with the Department of Health and Social Services as well as ENR, and I think others, actually, towards a food strategy for the Northwest Territories, and a lot of work has, in fact, been done on that recently. There's been an inventory done around food security programming led by ITI, and recently, a poverty round table hosted by Health and Social Services. All of that information is being put together through an ADM working group so that all the departments, again, continue to understand what each one is doing so that we can best respond...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 66)
Thank you, Madam Chair. I suggest this might go to our director of finance, Ms. Salvador, please.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 66)
Thank you, Madam Chair. There is an increase there. That's with respect to the Mineral Resources Act implementation and also money to establish the knowledge economy and regional economic development plans.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 66)
Thank, Madam Chair. That is not inaccurate, that it is certainly a conduit to more money, and we do have metrics. I don't know if we have them with us. I know it's reported on annually, Madam Chair, and if that is agreeable, I would certainly just commit to making sure that that's available to the Member.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 66)
Madam Chair, I am embarrassed to admit that I forgot what the question was because I love to talk about this. I had the pleasure of receiving a detailed, lengthy presentation, including all sorts of graphics, 3D things jumping out, all from Northwest Territories Tourism, who are our organization, marketing organization, here in the Northwest Territories. They have always traditionally done the bulk of the programming for tourism, and it is quite fantastic. I believe there is an outstanding offer for a similar briefing to committee to have all the same experiences of seeing 3D animals pop out...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 66)
Thank you, Madam Chair. I assume it's the film industry rebate program and the Great Northern Arts Festival is what we're looking at now. Yes. Thank you. Madam Chair, we're definitely looking at the film industry rebate as well as the Great Northern Arts Festival. With respect to the film industry, I'm quite pleased to say that with the film strategy coming out imminently again and knowing that we have right now a fairly strong emergent film industry, of course, yes, I'm more than happy to say that we'd like to consider more money, but money does not grow on actual trees. We want to look at...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 66)
Thank you, Madam Chair. There are no plans right now to have any sort of extra assessment around the need for this unit right at the moment. However, what we are fairly confident in is that, while there may not have been a lot of oil and gas exploration, there continues to be a very large amount of interest in LNG production, distribution, marketing, et cetera, across the Northwest Territories. There is a lot of activity in the Delta, but there is activity in the South Slave, as well, interested in it both at a small scale and a large scale.
There is certainly that aspect of it, in addition to...
