Caroline Wawzonek

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
Email
Extension
12177
Deputy Premier, Minister of Finance, Minister of Infrastructure, and Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation
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Minister
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Statements in Debates

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 12)

(audio) anywhere else, Mr. Speaker. So while we've gone down from tripling to doubling, Mr. Speaker, all the initiatives come through together. So the first step, of course, is the development of the mandate, which as done by Cabinet, but certainly involves review and input from Members, and then with that we'll go through the process of the budget establishment, and that includes once we've got that mandate we can look at initiatives. Initiatives are meant to actually then support the mandate. Obviously one of our four key items is economic growth, and the mineral resource industry continues...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 12)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the mineral exploration tax credit is a flowthrough tax credit tool that's used, and it's not one that would be effective here. We don't have the sort of financial institutions and large-scale investors that would make it useful as a tax tool from the Northwest Territories. We really are looking at the federal government where for them, in our view, there would be no revenue losses. It would be an opportunity to really just create this opportunity for more investment in the North and for an incentive to invest in the North.

To look more generally at what can...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 12)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ECE provides a variety of professional development and training opportunities for educators across the Northwest Territories. So specifically JK to 12 school educators receive training on the Indigenous languages and education handbook and in both Dene Kede and Inuuqatigiit that guide Indigenizing education in the Northwest Territories. ECE also allocates funding directly to education bodies for resource development and community support, which includes professional development for language and cultural education training, including land-based training. In...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 12)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can, and what I would suggest I do, though, is perhaps we can -- I don't know if we'll be able to table it by tomorrow but at the earliest opportunity, Mr. Speaker, we could put that information before the House or at the very least perhaps circulate where people can find it. It's on the Department of Finance's website under the diversity and inclusion services, the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework. There's a very long document. And then there's a very long list, every single department, every single agency has their own plan. Every one of them is...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 12)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's been quite a number of different pieces that have rolled out in support of hiring of -- more hiring and stronger hiring of Indigenous people in the Northwest Territories. There's the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework is really the vanguard item that we have on that. The Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework has quite a number of action items in it for each department, and each department has its own individualized framework or plan, action plan, within that. They're all available online. I won't start to name them off now, but...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 12)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mean, there's a number of things. One of those things is housing. So this is where it does become a whole-of-government issue. We want to ensure, of course, that if it's Yellowknife or wherever it might be, that the investment be aware that there's housing available for that staff. We want it to be -- them to be aware that there's land available for the expansion. So, again, the department of land's involvement. And we want them to be aware of the support from the government broadly, both from the perspective of infrastructure but also from the perspective of economic...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Mr. Speaker, I thought I was done for the day.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that Bill 5, Supplementary Appropriation Act, Infrastructure Expenditures, No. 3, 20232024, be read for the third time. Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

$6,061,850, Mr. Chair.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is a longer one. And I certainly don't want to hold up any of the other commitments that we're making that I think can benefit Members, particularly at this stage of the Assembly as we're learning about departments and supplementary appropriations. I don't want to hold those commitments up. The commitment to better understand the drive on agency nurses, the usage of agency nurses, for example what departments are using more, what regions might be using more, what times of year they might be getting used, those are questions that I do want to be seeking...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I happen to have it on authority that the Minister of Infrastructure is trying to arrange a briefing on MTS for committee and probably well deserved. It's certainly yes, the low water was certainly an impact, but that certainly isn't the only challenge that MTS has seen. They have struggled to find their footing since the end of NTCF for NTCL, so it is certainly not one that I want to minimize the ease by which there can be a path forward to sort of a more fiscally sustainable way. There's the forest fires also had an impact because, of course, the head office and main...