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 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, Mr. Chair, I do -- so I do have the breakdowns as between TCSA versus NTHSSA but I'm not -- I don't know that I have the breakdown individually within each region or community, so if that's the level of detail that the Member's looking for I would have to -- although I can see if perhaps deputy secretary might have more information.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I mean, I see, I believe utility rates would have seemed to have been changing across different regions both in terms of the electricity costs as well as transportation of fuel. So you may well see some higher costs, for example, in the Sahtu, but I -- again, the breakdown I have, shows as compared between the budget versus costs, and we have increases in the Beaufort Delta, in the Deh Cho -- particularly in Beaufort Delta, and Deh Cho, North Slave. Those three are showing right now as being over their budgets. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And first of all, I do want to commit that the human resources -- or the health recruitment unit that does -- is a shared responsibility between health and finance. More than happy to have them follow up if there -- if we can identify the specific programs that the Member's suggesting, we'll make sure they're following up and even just generally, perhaps, take an opportunity to see that we recruiting -- we do tend to recruit almost all, if not all, graduates from Aurora College, but if there's specifically some Indigenous focused programs elsewhere, that would be very...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it is a formal letter that is written. I don't have it here since I was not anticipating necessarily to speak to that with respect to the contents of the supplementary appropriation requests. I can say we did identify some of the key pressure points that we've seen over the last five years, the wildfires, for instance, flooding two years in a row, wildfires over the course of multiple years, the costs of those that are incurred often have to get carried and carried over while we are waiting for DFAA funding to come back in, and some of those costs are born...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm certainly happy to speak, again, a little bit to some of the circumstances that led to the proposal to have a $12 million over four years, so 48 over four years rather, 12 a year, and hopefully that can alleviate some of the concern or confusion.

What was in my mind, and I just couldn't find my notes from last week because, really, they were relating to my knowledge of this from being NTPC Minister, one of the reasons for selecting this option of doing the $12 million over four, it -- well, for one, it was the lowest rate impact that we were looking to...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there are, indeed, industry standards for public sectors in terms of the amount that should, you know, ideally be held both between being an owned facility versus being a leased facility. Mr. Chair, again, I don't have with me right now for the supplementary estimate document where we fall within that. My recollection was that we actually were falling within the industry standard but, again, I don't have that here to confirm. There is a significant difference as between Yellowknife in particular, where there is a different market for office space as compared to...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Not locum physicians if that's what you're seeking. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

There are, Mr. Chair. It's in the financial administration manual. I would suggest directing that to the deputy minister for some detail, please.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Yes.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 41)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, Mr. Chair, I'm happy to have the chance to say that we didn't necessarily, you know, lose money, but the budget was reduced in the hopes that they'd be able to move forward a little faster in terms of getting this -- getting a project off the ground that can reduce our lease space.

Currently, there are 72 percent of the total GNWT lease space is leased. There is 107 individual leases across all regions of the territory. Now, whether or -- the degree to which those are all individual, we have 82 with northern landlords, or 38 percent of our space; 25 of these leases...