Caroline Wawzonek

Députée de Yellowknife Sud

Première ministre adjointe
Ministre des Finances
Ministre responsable de la Société d’énergie des Territoires du Nord-Ouest
Ministre responsable de l’infrastructure stratégique, de l’énergie et des chaînes d’approvisionnement

Caroline Wawzonek a été élue pour la première fois à la 19e Assemblée législative en 2019, comme représentante de Yellowknife Sud. Elle a été ministre de la Justice, ministre des Finances, ministre responsable de la condition de la femme, et ministre de l’Industrie, du Tourisme et de l’Investissement. En 2023, Mme Wawzonek a été élue par acclamation à la 20e Assemblée législative et a réintégré le Conseil exécutif en tant que première ministre adjointe, ministre des Finances, ministre de l’Infrastructure et ministre responsable de la Société d’énergie des TNO.

Mme Wawzonek a obtenu un baccalauréat ès arts de l’Université de Calgary en 2000 et un diplôme en droit de la faculté de droit de l’Université de Toronto en 2005. Son parcours universitaire comprend des études de langues en Chine et à Taïwan, ainsi que des stages de droit aux Philippines et en Angleterre. Mme Wawzonek est née à Calgary (Alberta) et habite Yellowknife depuis 2007.

Une fois admise au Barreau des TNO, Mme Wawzonek a mis sur pied sa propre pratique du droit pénal et a plaidé à tous les échelons du système judiciaire des Territoires du Nord-Ouest, et s’est souvent déplacée dans les collectivités ténoises à cet effet. Elle a ensuite intégré le cabinet d’avocats Dragon Toner, élargissant sa pratique au litige général et au droit administratif jusqu’à ce qu’elle devienne députée de la 19e Assemblée.

Depuis 2007, Mme Wawzonek a assumé de nombreux rôles de leadership au sein de la communauté juridique : elle a notamment été présidente du Barreau des Territoires du Nord-Ouest et présidente de section pour la division des Territoires du Nord-Ouest de l’Association du Barreau canadien, et a participé à divers groupes de travail. Son engagement envers la collectivité l’a amenée à œuvrer dans de multiples organisations de Yellowknife et, en 2017, elle a reçu un prix national soulignant le travail de femmes canadiennes œuvrant dans le domaine du droit.

Mère de deux enfants, Caroline Wawzonek aime courir, faire de la planche à pagaie et passer du temps à l’extérieur.

Committees

Caroline Wawzonek
Yellowknife Sud
Bureau

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Boîte
1320
Extension
12177
Vice-premier ministre, Ministère des finances, Ministre de l'Infrastructure, Ministre responsable de la Société d'énergie des Territoires du Nord-Ouest
Mobile
Ministre

Déclarations dans les débats

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 43)

Either way, Mr. Speaker, on this one, thank you for the question. Mr. Speaker, this report from the auditor general, every single other recommendation the GNWT has accepted. It's singularly around the classification of the Liwego'ati Building as being whether a P3 or not a P3 that we continue to have this issue. If it is a commercial lease, we do not report any of our commercial leases publicly. They are proprietary information to the landlord. Because we have classified this one as a commercial lease, it is proprietary information, it is reported by constituency, by community, as every other...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 43)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't want to presuppose the work of the committee with respect to how the action plan is being formed and what it will contain or its detail. There is a lot of work happening across departments. We are all contributing to being part of the work on behalf of the GNWT as being just one Member at that table. So, Mr. Speaker, and I don't want to also -- to take away from the fact that the GNWT has bilateral agreements with multiple Indigenous governments and that we also sit at Council of Leaders and at IGCS. So there's a great deal of integration within the...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 43)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I agree, an excellent question and appreciate it, Mr. Speaker, and there will be divergence of views on this. I recognize that. It is an area that when we did engagement over a year and some, 2023-2024, it's an area that I, frankly, found interesting to read and learn more about. There is, again, divergence of view on it. But one of the views that the Department of Finance has here ultimately adopted is that folks who may experience some form of disability don't want to have to self-disclose in order to be able to gain advantage, and so what we would...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 43)

Mr. Speaker, again, I am happy to be able to report as soon as we are paving that runway, we will be chip sealing this portion of the Inuvik Bypass Road. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 43)

No, the Constitution hasn't changed, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 43)

Mr. Speaker, it strikes fear into my heart as a lawyer who is under obligations to hold records as well. So I can't answer for what may or may not have happened back in 2014 or 2015, Mr. Speaker. What I can answer for is the efforts that we're making today to make sure that we don't find ourselves back in this situation. Not only today but looking back even a few years now within this -- within more recent government, changes to the procurement process, changes to the records management. We have a procurement committee. It might seem like an extra layer, but to not have coordination amongst...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 43)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the most significant things that we get from that, having entered into the revenue, again, sharing agreement with them, it did bring down the overall cost to us of having access to a building that has been fully renovated for use. And when I say renovated, I also want to say remediated. Again, the costs of remediating a building of this size and scale are not insignificant. That would have been a significant cost to the GNWT to do that, to bring it up to a level that would then be actually useable again from the state that it was in. So we are --...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 43)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so there's the P3 partner who operates the Stanton Territorial Hospital and then there is a separate arrangement, commercial arrangement, with a leaseholder over the Liwego'ati Building. Again, two different entities that we are speaking about. And what I certainly can look again back to, and I believe was committed at the time, is that some further evidence can be provided, some further information can be provided with respect to the cost differentials. So specifically on the Liwego'ati Building, at that time it would have been -- at the time that the...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 43)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the auditor general, as I understand, was -- is looking at the two projects as one and our view continues to be that the two projects are not one. And so the way that we are looking at that value analysis continues to differ, Mr. Speaker. And we do now have a campus-based approach with health care with the two facilities operating side-by-side rather than a Stanton Territorial Hospital and what would have then been a separate building built somewhere else at some distance. So at this point, Mr. Speaker, we have two operating facilities and, again, looking...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 43)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to my knowledge this is a unique situation. It was also a unique opportunity, Mr. Speaker. It's not one that was -- any Member of this Cabinet was in government at the time. What we had is a building that we owned that needed to be remediated, and we needed to remediate it at significant costs. This is a large building, a medical building, and the remediation would be significant. So that was included as part of the leasing arrangement.

Subsequent to that -- and I think this is where there starts to be some challenges. And subsequent to that, it was...