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
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Minister
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Statements in Debates

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know there have been some improvements in terms of increasing the capacity to undertake that work. I would like to get back to the Member with a more specific answer around whether or not there is anything left to do and, perhaps, be able to provide more detail with respect to what may be happening in different regions. That is not something that I have in front of me. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I may have just created an extra piece of work for the Department of Finance. It was part of the public accounts, but it certainly could be tabled on its own, or as part of the public accounts. I suppose that if there is a preference of the committee, we'd be open to hearing back from them. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am more than happy to do that. Madam Chair, no, there is no intention to have any sort of ongoing reduction to the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. This was simply a reflection of a particular one-time program, and of course, it remains the commitment of this government to continue to seek out opportunities for more programs of that nature to hopefully bring in similar opportunities. There is a continuing intention to maintain funding to the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Madam Chair, the question is to how successful the Department of Finance is, and the GNWT more generally, in improving telecommunications. To properly answer that is a much longer answer than what, I think, the committee is looking for in the review of the mains. It is one of the commitments in the mandate to improve telecommunications connectivity. It is one that we will, therefore, have to be reporting back to this House on in terms of developing a plan to show that we are going to improve our connectivity. That will involve looking at a baseline of where we are now in order to measure where...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you, Madam Chair. As I had alluded to earlier, we've already had a Ministers' meeting for Ministers of all provinces, territories, and the federal government, and we've been following up, and we've continued to have dialogue and continue to have engagement with the federal government about the situation. I am alive to the degree of engagement necessary when you look at the source of the income that's on our page here, and where it comes from, and maintaining a positive relationship with the federal government is going to be important, and to have dialogue about our finances, and our...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Madam Chair, I am not going to commit to taking steps to update something until I know whether it needs to be updated, or perhaps if there are other tools that will actually accomplish the goal at hand. Madam Chair, in my view, the goal at hand is to have a representative workforce and to improve the representation of the workforce. My commitment is to make sure that we look for the best possible way to achieve that goal. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you, Madam Chair. The fund has now become professionally managed. That has improved the returns that are being received on the fund. The projection on the rate of the percent of the fund that is now actually interest, as opposed to the principal, it's projected to be close to 5 percent in the course of this fiscal year. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Madam Chair, I certainly can provide that number. I'm not sure that I can point it to the Member right this moment on this particular page. I can provide some other general statistics in terms of knowing that it is within the financial responsibilities policy and that we are compliant with that. In fact, we're very low; we're under 2 percent for the coming year, but the actual number, Madam Chair, I will have to get back to the Member.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

Thank you, Madam Chair. On this occasion, I have the benefit of Mr. Kalgutkar here, who does support some of that work, so I am going to have him answer that question.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 11)

I am going to turn over to the deputy minister, please.