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

Board of Management
Yellowknife South
Member's Office

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Box
1320
Email
Email
Office
(867) 767-9143
Extension
12177
Deputy Premier, Minister of Finance, Minister of Infrastructure, and Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation
Mobile
867-445-7437
Minister
Email
Email

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 157)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, that is correct. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 157)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I have on my left Mr. Bill MacKay, deputy minister of Finance. And on my right, Terence Courtoreille, the deputy secretary to the financial management board.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 157)

Madam Chair, that has actually been in fact, calculated. Ask and you shall receive. $1.1 million approximately in terms of the transportation and accommodations to accommodate the need for those who had to travel for birth. Thank you.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 157)

Yes, I do. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair. I am here to present the Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 20232024.

The operations supplementary estimates propose a total increase of $103.952 million of which $21.6 million will be offset by revenues from the Government of Canada and $48.4 million is offset by appropriations lapsed in 20222023.

The operations supplementary estimates propose the following expenditures:

$48.4 million to continue to undertake flood recovery activities across the NWT;

$15.2 million in subsidies to address electrical rate pressures for NWT...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 157)

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is for the current fiscal year 20232024, and it is intended to help support the funding of an additional five positions as well as some additional actually 6.25 positions, if you will, is how it's termed, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Question 1533-19(2): Evacuee Compensation
Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 157)

Mr. Speaker, a big part of what we tried to do with this program was to make it easy to apply and then easy to get the money out. So, again, that is another one of the reasons when you look at one of the forms online, it's online fillable, and it's looking for proof of income, income disruption, but we're not asking people to start going and tracking down documents that they might not have had, particularly if the evacuation had lasted longer. So there's provisions in there to speak to their income disruption but not asking for a lot of difficult paperwork. And once they can fill that form out...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 157)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I can say that there should be an options paper available in some I mean, I don't yeah, I'm calling it an options paper. There will be something available to committee by tomorrow, which is indeed the deadline that was set. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 157)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, that's correct.

Question 1533-19(2): Evacuee Compensation
Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 157)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's a few issues in there. I think I've caught them all.

First of all, Mr. Speaker, we're not Alberta. They were dealing with less than one percent of their population that was forced to be evacuated. We were looking at almost 10 percent of the population in the Northwest Territories being evacuated. And, Mr. Speaker, I know folks are looking at Alberta. I suspect folks in British Columbia were looking at Alberta, as were folks in Saskatchewan looking at Alberta, and even Nova Scotia might, frankly, be looking at us because they were offering, at last...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 157)

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is onetime finding to solve the problem for now. Madam Chair, I'm not going to pretend that the challenges of high fuel costs and rates are necessarily going away today, but there is another application in that is that is working its way through and that may help to provide some relief going forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.