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.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha that Bill 16, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2025-2026, be read for the third time. Mr. Speaker, I would request a recorded vote. Thank you.
Debates of
, 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 37)
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize a resident of Yellowknife South, also a fellow hockey parent, fellow soccer parent Nicole Sok here today. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House that Bill 16, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2025-2026, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was just trying to pull the report out fast enough. I have it in front of me, Mr. Speaker. But, really, at this point, we -- and I've gone through this many a time. We spend far more as a government on -- in terms of our energy, energy supply, energy policy, climate change initiatives, energy efficiency programs, energy and electricity programs, significantly more there than what we take in on this tax. What we don't do in general, not just with this tax but any other form of tax, any other form of revenue, is pick out a certain type of revenue and...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's not necessarily designed or intended to run with surpluses. It is intended -- our program is intended to align with the parameters that the federal government has imposed on provinces and territories around the carbon taxation and while doing so, doing so in a manner that we can continue to see some benefits here in the territory by not misaligning with the kind of large emitters that we have. So, again, not designed for surpluses but, again, really designed for that kind of compliance mechanism. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I've said, I will go -- I've been waiting to see what is happening on a national level. I'm happy to go back to that group and receive from them and push them to see what their recommendations are. If it's possible to put those into a regulatory process, that's a little bit faster. If we're talking about a new piece of legislation, that is obviously not typically a lot faster. So let me go and see what they are recommending on a national level so that we can then look to where we could fit that into our process. In the meantime, Mr. Speaker, the...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, some of those policy changes have been under development for many years. I've not been in this role a whole year yet myself, but I can say that a lot of research has been done in the Department of Infrastructure, working with colleagues across -- in -- colleagues in the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, other utilities, Indigenous governments, consultations. And Mr. Speaker, I am very much looking forward to an opportunity to start to bring some of those forward I was going to say as soon as possible. I know that people like to have more specific...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with respect to transportation planning studies, we are in discussions with Transportation Canada. They are aware of the challenges of the North. We've raised the number of regulatory problems that continue to arise, which do impact costs and impacts opportunity. So we are in contact with them. Again, I can't speak for where or when Transportation Canada might opt to move forward with us, but we have certainly thus far had a good relationship. I'm hopeful that they will see the need to better understand a region of the country that is unique and distinct...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the challenges of some projects is on -- when there's federal funding and moving too quickly. That has certainly been a concern. The other problem is not having enough planning time done. So, Mr. Speaker, something folks may have noticed in the last couple of weeks is that there often are planning dollars associated to projects rather than the big dollars associated to the announcement of the project. Mr. Speaker, it doesn't look very exciting in a budget but it means that we're actually putting something out, taking the time to do the design and...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've rather made a bit of an effort here since the start of the Members' statements to try to figure out the reference that was made. Mr. Speaker, the best I can discern, if we're going to actually speak about data, that this came from Open NWT's data source; it's a reference that goes back to 2004 listing, 2,000 contract that is go back some 20 years. I will note the last three years have single digits in terms of the count of contracts that have had change orders and would suggest that, perhaps, the situation is not as dire as it used to be in fact.
