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.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 6719(2): Report on the Review of the 20212022 Public Accounts and Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 20242025. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I did note before, again, that there are some considerations already listed, including the inability to pay. With respect to elders broadly as an individual category, that is not currently a consideration and would probably be difficult because of the multitude of circumstances that elders may find themselves in and defining who may railroad may not be an elder. I can say, Mr. Speaker, being a whole of government, I know there is the policy review going on over in housing that you've already heard about, and to the extent that there may be an opportunity...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is the document that guides what happens when first an agency or other department identifies a debt for repayment and then brings it forward for consideration. As I noted, the consideration does already include circumstances where an individual's indigent, so if there's a disconnect happening, if there's someone who's in those circumstances and is not finding their debt forgiven, I am going to commit that myself and my colleague Minister of housing will work together to make sure that if there's a something if there's disconnecting, we could speak...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can agree because that is one of the considerations that is within the Financial Administration Manual that if an individual is indigent or in other words is unable to repay, then that is one of the considerations and could be one of the reasons for forgiveness or remission of a debt. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we certainly do work with P3 partners, and individual P3 projects that exist right now have different parameters and different contracts to them. Certainly going forward, if there was a future P3, of which there's none contemplated at the present date, we can work to ensure that we are doing that in the best way forward, keeping in mind the priorities of the government and at that point I think that would include whatever type of arrangements would be negotiated to with that P3 partner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, let's just be clear. I had no notice of these questions. I don't know what phone number this Member's using but I had no idea these were coming today. So this is a surprise to me.
On top of that, Mr. Speaker, these are not lifetime contracts. They are limited period contracts. And, in fact, one, I believe, is coming up for renewal in 2027, which is not that far away. When those contracts come up for renewal, as I've already said, we are certainly happy to look at them and ensure that they continue to meet the needs of the Northwest Territories residents...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the P3 projects we have right now is with the Tlicho government on the TASR road. Another one would be at Stanton. And both of those projects, Mr. Speaker, I believe are under current contractual arrangements. So short of breaching our contract, which certainly the Government of the Northwest Territories does not want to do, I would not try to enter into some sort of renegotiation of what is existing, P3 project contracts do, time to time, come for renewal or for renegotiation and at that point we can certainly look at the contents thereof and ensure...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I missed one earlier, Mr. Speaker. There's also the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link. So that, along with Stanton and the Tlicho AllSeason Road, are the current three P3 projects that are in their operating phase, and different departments are responsible for each finance, infrastructure, health and social services, and we certainly, I would expect, remain in contact with the three party all of the parties that are involved as we are P3 partners, and we'll continue to have conversations with them to make sure that we are providing the services as contemplated in...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can say with respect to the Dempster, in general, that what we are doing right now is looking forward to working with the Yukon and bringing both sides together towards jointly bringing our efforts to find a way to update and to improve the Dempster Highway. So we have road crews going out in this summer season and next summer season to do some initial scoping work and some geotechnical type studies and other studies so that they could be prepared to understand what kind of planning is required to ensure that that entire stretch is looked at. And so that...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's a regional office in every different region across the Northwest Territories, and each regional office is responsible for doing that type of maintenance when there are issues. There are a variety of different channels through each post. The deputy minister, the assistant deputy minister who is responsible for regions, and myself as well, are all notified. So when there's -- for instance, when there was the -- earlier this year and the ice roads were melting, we were all involved on various chats and emails and text groups and phone calls to notify...
