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.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents: The 71st Annual Report 2024-2025 of the Northwest Territories Liquor Licensing Board; the Northwest Territories Liquor and Cannabis Commission 71st Annual Report 2024-2025; and, the Northwest Territories Hydro and Northwest Territories Power Corporation 2024-2025 Annual Report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe for anyone watching and eager to take one of these programs, it's the certified service professional I believe. Certified service professional and certified service manager work. They have been going on for many years, but they have shifted a few years ago to being an online program so they wouldn't necessarily get fully subscribed, Mr. Speaker. But so folks who are interested certainly can contact -- it's the OCIO that actually manages this particular program as that is our contact point within the Department of Finance, and they continue to receive quite a...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if a fairness advisor, for example, were to identify that there was any irregularity or concern raised, a procurement can be paused and a procurement certainly can be -- we can make a decision not to continue. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, we certainly want to ensure that fundamentally that the reputation of the government to follow through with procurements when they've put out is maintained and that they continue to do so in a transparent fashion. So there are quite a number of rules that are associated to conducting a procurement and to conducting a...
Debates of
, 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 72)
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize another resident of Yellowknife South, a politically involved sports mom like myself, Nicole Csar. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do conduct every two years the Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey, which obviously is internal, wouldn't necessarily be an outward-facing with respect to the perspective of the clients of the front-facing -- front-service providers but certainly does engage in it and measure the degree to which public servants themselves are sensing their improvement or seeing their engagement are feeling the level of delivery of service that they provide. There's a number of different measures, and, in fact, it's a little plug, Mr. Speaker, because that survey...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, public procurement processes are one that the government takes very seriously. It is very important to ensure that when an RFP goes out that it is adhered to, it is put out publicly. The very nature of the process is that there will be a successful bidder and there will be not successful bidders. And what we do at that point, Mr. Speaker, is to ensure, again, as I've said, that we throughout the process are monitoring what's going on internally, that when there's a large procurement, there's a fairness advisor from outside of the government to monitor that...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is -- one of the things we are working on right now is actually to have an improvement to our vendor complaint process. The process that we have right now is a review process, and anyone that goes through a procurement and is unsuccessful at the end of that procurement can go through the review process, and it would be explained to them where they may have been unsuccessful or why they may have been unsuccessful, and procurement shared services can work with potential proponents so that they can improve bids going forward.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have had concerns raised at times, certainly in this government, where we had a very narrow set of four priorities. It was raised at some departments or at least divisions since the work that they did every day that they believed was for residents was not going to be reflected in business plans because it didn't necessarily, at least on first blush, reflect overtly or directly the priorities. So, again, I appreciate it. I think there's probably some back and forth to be had.
Too much information is of no benefit to the public to understand or to Members to...
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes that Bill 39, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026, be read for the third time. And, Mr. Speaker, I would request a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I suppose that may be a matter of interpretation in the sense that departments certainly are very well aware of the priorities of this Assembly. It is incumbent on, obviously, Ministers as being politically accountable, deputy ministers as being operationally accountable to deliver on the priorities. So to the extent that the business plans do not align with the priorities, that really should come forward.
Every main estimates, that's why we put them with the main estimates. It gives a good opportunity for Members here in this House to critique the main estimates...
