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.
I can definitely commit that, if there is such an application that was denied on the basis of market disruption after such time as that announcement was made, that we will be looking at it again and ensure that it does meet the intentions as they have been stated and retooled to meet to COVID-19.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thought I'd have an easy answer there, and then I heard "2021," and I'm not able to make that commitment on the floor right now. As I've said, for the moment, when the SEED Policy had been retooled to accommodate and to respond to COVID-19, the market disruption clause has been waived for the current fiscal year. Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Member that we are going to be looking at that, given where we're at and if the pandemic continues to be ongoing and, in fact, continues to be fairly disruptive in the southern regions. I will certainly commit to looking at that...
The market disruption clause certainly has been the subject of some discussion. What I will certainly commit to is saying that, in the course of the review that we are doing internally of the SEED program, a careful examination of the market disruption clause needs to happen. Certainly, what I have heard from some of the larger centres is that there is a greater desire to get rid of it. Yet, from the smaller centres, there is some desire to hang onto it. It may be that we need to find a "not one size fits all" solution to that clause.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to note that the staff who will be administering the SEED program are both orderly and smart in the way that they will be administering that program, and we appreciate the work they do every day. Right now, the budget for SEED is $3.8 million, and it has been that way for a great many years. Fortunately, as part of the COVID response, we were able to increase this budget up to $4 million through internal reallocations, and as of right now, we are actually projecting that that will hit $4.3 million in terms of the total applications being sought. Every effort...
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table to following two documents: "Northern Employees Benefit Services (NEBS) Pension Plan Annual Report for the Year Ended December 31, 2019 and including updated information to June 2020" and "NWT Carbon Tax Report 2019-2020." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Right now, there are no plans in place to be extending the fibre line to Gameti and Wekweeti. The first step is to get it as far as Whati. Again, working in combination with the Tlicho Government, it may well be that, if we are successful in our applications to the federal government for their support and their funding in regard to that project, that, from there, we may well be moving on to Gameti and Wekweeti, but we have to lay the first line first.
There are business supports that ITI does have in terms of providing business mentorship. The Business Mentoring Program run through ITI has been, in fact, oversubscribed for the last two years, so I think that speaks to its success. I certainly would plug that program. There are certainly funding supports through ITI, for example, with the SEED Program that can help businesses as they are getting started. Then, of course, in terms of accessing contracting, there are the existing programs under BIP, for instance, that can help businesses gain access to government procurement, and there are...
I had the opportunity to review the materials around the 8(a) Program that comes out of the United States, and I can't say that that program has been looked at as a model for the Northwest Territories. I do want to assure the Member that ITI does look at best practices that come from across Canada in terms of how we are supporting local business and will continue to do so.
Again, I am very pleased to say that we're going to be working together with the Tlicho Government to bring a fibre line into the community of Whati, and pleased that, again, at this point, with the CRTC approvals that are in place, Gameti and Wekweeti will be seeing a dramatic improvement to their access, as well. We are constantly working with federal counterparts to have access and opportunity to get involved with the tremendous amount of funding that is coming forward in the next few years for broadband, but even that funding from the federal government, at this point, although we're...
