Member Yellowknife South

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.
 

Committees

Caroline Wawzonek
Yellowknife South
Member's Office

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Box
1320
Extension
12177
Deputy Premier, Minister of Finance, Minister of Infrastructure, and Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 33)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it's -- I'm always happy when someone is referencing the fiscal responsibility policy, but I don't know that that's -- that policy's really meant to guide the development of the fiscal strategy and the fiscal stewardship on the operations side yet not necessarily in the same way as it applies here, although I know that may be something to look at for the future into how they intersect one with the other. But as far as the three big projects, they are each at different stages and they do each have slightly different obviously sort of end goal benefits.

Fundamenta...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 33)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I could direct that to assistant deputy minister MacKay, please.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 32)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I mean, obviously every element of the budget does at some point come through the department of -- well, sorry, not the department of FMB but through the FMB. But this is an item that is a standing -- I guess a standing element sort of its own pot. It doesn't necessarily, quite frankly -- I mean, what we're dealing with is -- just to put some numbers to it, 7,000 different devices for all staff which, you know, 6,000 plus public servants, offices across 33 communities, some of which are on fibre, some of which are still on microwave, so an allocation of $1.95...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 32)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there is. And I appreciate the question it doesn't necessarily line up from the title of the project what it is. But by having a modernization project of this nature, we're actually being -- making it easier for residents to access government services. It provides the ability to make services more accessible to all residents across the entire territory. It helps us decentralize those services, gives an opportunity to greater decentralize the services but also greater decentralize potentially positions associated with those services. These are obviously economic...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 32)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the materials -- I mean, the information that we're providing in general wouldn't have the procurement detail in it. So the procurement detail traditionally, and across a lot of different governments, not only ours, they don't want to put the number to which then bidders would simply bid to to meet that budget. But, you know, again, I -- if there's information that we're speaking to here, it typically wouldn't be considered confidential. If the question is about making our budget documents bigger, then I can certainly take that back and have a look at it. Thank...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 32)

Yes, please, Mr. Chair.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 32)

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Tuesday, October 29th, 2024, I will present Bill 11, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 32)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first, with respect to the fulsomeness of the public service, a lot of the growth in the last little while has actually been in the Department of Health and Social Services. A lot of other growth has actually been as a result of Jordan's Principle funding which is allowing additional services in ECE. And that said, there is a very active conversation happening, led with the Department of Finance human resources, around ensuring that we don't have positions that are sitting unfilled, that are not being fully utilized, and with a view to having those...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 32)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One consideration with -- well, I guess two considerations with off ramps initially. The first one that I was going to suggest is that we not put ourselves into a situation where the cost of coming off on the off ramp actually winds up being just kicking a cost down the line and being greater later. Again, not dissimilar to actual physical infrastructure that you can delay a renovation, you can delay a fix, but you may wind up with a bigger problem down the line. We do, you know, obviously -- and certainly I'm trying to put it back into this context, if it's clear that...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 32)

Mr. Speaker, absolutely we will have to prioritize that work again. Just by way of some example of what we did last year, we were widening the road that gave the ability for trucks to be going but also didn't impede smaller traffic with folks who may be doing their own personal resupply, had more signage, increased patrols, increased checkpoints, which was not only a safety issue; it helps increase the flow of traffic and make the flow of traffic better. And we've also had some increased maintenance, increased improvements. Again, everything we can do to keep the road in a state that people...