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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Statements in Debates

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 164)

Madam Chair, right now, the project scope does not have an assisted living. It has contemplates the higher level of medical requirements that would be needed for individuals, so as well as other facilities, kitchen, laundry, and, you know, communication systems. Some of these are included right now in what is being scoped out. But as I said, at the present time it's being scoped for being an assisted living facility at a higher end need. So, you know, again, I would say the first step is to just get the site, do the technical evaluations and do this engagement. So to the extent that there...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 164)

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, the complicating factor here is there are no GNWT lands that can be turned into a territorial park, nor unless there was to be some sort of lands swap. But, I mean, right now this is not GNWT land. They are IFR or Inuvialuit lands and/or Tuk community corp lands. So my in speaking with the department over the last couple of years and wondering why there isn't more development, quite frankly, in Tuktoyaktuk and/or along the highway, part of it is, again, that's not our land to develop and it's not our land to do anything with. We can support the...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 164)

Let's go to ADM Brennan, please.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 164)

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I mean, there are two parts to it I suppose. Firstly, if there's an interest in having DFO involved, I mean, the Department of ITI can be a liaison point where whether under tourism, whether under fisheries, potentially Department of Municipal and Community Affairs I imagine could certainly go and advocate to our counterparts to say, look, we would like your officials and staff to come and come to our region and look at what prospects there might be, do their own internal assessments and government processes that exist within the federal government. We would not be...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 164)

Thank you, Madam Chair. So, again, at this point only the crush contract has been completed. That one is being done by a local community contractor. Anything on the Frank Channel bridge would have to go through the Tlicho Infrastructure Cooperation Agreement, which there's a presumption in a way that or an initial attempt to negotiate directly with the Tlicho government or subsidiary thereof. If there's an inability to reach conclusion, then even so, any outside agreement that may be reached would still then be subject to having provisions within it for employment and I believe also for...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 164)

Thank you, Madam Chair. That is a bit out of the capital that I've prepared for. I'll turn it to Mr. Martin, please.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 163)

Madam Chair, that is a huge question. It's a huge question that comes in light of the fact that, you know, again, this was this was a difficult few years, and we have some projects where people work in communities for safety reasons didn't want teams come into their communities. Then we had other projects where they were not able to go into those communities. And we've had then some other projects where the supply chain has utterly disrupted our schedules and then significantly impacted on the costs.

So I'm not sure that in at the end of those three years of that nature is necessarily the...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 163)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there will be changes to the royalty regime. It's part of the regulatory process that we're undergoing. Whether it will necessarily be what the Member wants or visions for it, I can't say. Obviously, the process isn't done. It's one that we are going through, and I will detail it at some length in the summary report showing the process that is followed with the Intergovernmental Council. I can say from the recent mining and Minister's or energy and mining Ministers' conference that I was at that there's been some work done at Enercan, looking at all of...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 163)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Joining now at the table is Perry Heath who is the director of infrastructure and planning for the Department of Health and Social Services.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 163)

Thank you, Madam Chair. No, as I said earlier, Madam Chair, the overall completion date for the total project is August of 2024. The revised gym completion date because when we recognize, again, discussing with community leadership at the behest of the Member from the region was really looking at that as a priority for the community for the reasons that the Member's already mentioned and so the revised gym completion date, which was supposed to be ready for the school year, is now, I've been given, November the 1st. Thank you.