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
Mobile
Minister
Email

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think and I just want to make I'll double check this, that I have this accurately, but I think no, it's $6 million roughly or just over $6 million is for the travel. We maintained the employment disruption from internal funds and so the total expenses on both will come in at just around $9 million. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The total amount for everyone's pointing at my computer, Mr. Chair. Just $69,766, Mr. Chair.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, just trying to make sure I'm see if perhaps don't know that any of us have that right at the tip of our fingers, Mr. Chair. I just want to again, I mean, the fact that there's $14 million $14.4 million here is what is required at this point to bring it back. But I yes, I mean that so that I mean maybe I'm not maybe I'm not sorry, maybe I'm misunderstanding the question, Mr. Chair. So obviously compared to what the projected budget was, the projected deficit at this point is $14.4 million. So is the question something other than that 14.4? Sorry, thank...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, we are in an effort to actually answer questions, I'm not clear we were asking what in the wastewater surveillance and what in the second item go public facing? Like, as in what the programs and services are? Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Mr. Chair, that is not an analysis that I necessarily have in front of me with respect to this supplementary appropriation. I'm happy to take that question away and have our folks in Finance give it some thought. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So let me start by saying there's actually a projected shortfall of $2.843 million. Some of it is can otherwise be funded internally. The actuals are for it's for, rather, yes, the total expenses are estimated at around 4.9 or just over $4.9 million.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it is my understanding that the RCMP do the analysis and make the final determination on where officers should be located and what the operational needs are for those officers in those communities. For example, the example earlier of there being an officer based nominally in Yellowknife but assigned technically to Dettah or N'dilo. That said, Mr. Chair, I would note that there are community policing, again outside the scope of the supplementary appropriation, but there are community policing priorities that are issued every year that are prepared with the...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, to date we've had 6,336 folks apply under the income disruption; 9,515 under the travel support. And of those, quite a number, 4,800, are processed for payment under the first. 8,712 under the second. Some are ineligible so there may be duplicate applications. They maybe hadn't met the specific qualifications under each program. But at this point, there shouldn't we're not expecting that there should be a significant number of any new applications. There's still about 230 about just under 250 that are still in process or being reviewed further. But that...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if there I mean, difficult to make a guesstimate of that. Different nurses have different fall within the pay scale at different rates. There is different overtime amounts, different enhancements, you know, again, so. I can give you there's a, you know, total number of scheduled hours that an agency nurse might work. I can try to break that down. But, again, breaking it down by what that does by hour, you know, again, different nurses come in at different hourly rates. So, you know, I'm not this is a discussion broadly about the fact that agency nurses are...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So phase one is opening up really what was a bit of an emergency level or emergency sized channel for first year. That would help get the barge traffic moving again. So it's been many years that there has not been an adequate level of support for the harbour. Back in 2012, Public Works and Services of Canada was actually providing a lot more support so that their own kibscar facility vessels could actually maneuver as well as Department of Fisheries and Oceans. That stopped, and then as a result, the harbour built back up. So it became a bit of an emergency, and that was...