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.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so I can say over time that there's been, as I said, different questions and initiatives but there has been a more recent outreach from the judiciary, and it was in response to that efforts were made to see what immediate steps could be taken. Again, to build an entirely new facility, which is something that's been asked, is well over the $200 million mark, and so there was an effort made here to say -- to try to respond, as I said, to recent outreach from the judiciary. This amount gets moving in terms of some immediate changes to the entryway which would help...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is correct, it does. The insurance premium tax that gets paid to the GNWT does take into account any increases in total gross premiums for the calendar year. So the premium tax is three percent on general insurance, one percent on fire insurance, and that is, indeed, based on the previous calendar years' insurance premiums. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Debates of
, 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 61)
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left, Bill MacKay as the deputy minister of finance. And on my right, Mandi Bolstad is the deputy secretary to the financial management board.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the intention around fairness. Mr. Speaker, I -- again, without -- I don't have the details of the procurement here in front of me, as I normally wouldn't. That is a level of operations that Ministers would be inappropriate to get my hands involved in and certainly not here. So, again, I do appreciate the concern for fairness. I certainly can commit that I'll double down on saying to the department that we want to ensure that we are being fair and that we are maintaining and adhering to all of the procurement principles that we have. But beyond that, Mr...
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Bill 30, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures and Borrowing Authorization) No. 1, 2025-2026, be read for the second time.
This bill makes supplementary appropriations for operations expenditures and borrowing authorization for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we did acknowledge the email that I got this morning from the Member and thank you for bringing this to my attention.
As with any other procurement matter, I'm not going to be putting these details on the floor of the House. I have already tasked the department to look into it and when we to get a matter where there's some concerns around a procurement scoring, much like a human resource matter, there are avenues and channels by which we can have our staff review it, can have it go through a review. And certainly, until that's been done, Mr. Speaker, I'm not going...
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Inter-Activity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 (April 1st, 2024 to March 31st, 2025). Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I do every year after Youth Parliament, today I am bringing the words of the youth representative from Yellowknife South to this House, ensuring all Members and the public hear the fresh perspectives, innovative solutions, and policy insights reflected in the voice of our youth. And so, Mr. Speaker, this year, Yellowknife South, who was represented by Lauren Tordiff, and these words are hers:
As young people, we inherit the challenges of today and the responsibility to create solutions for tomorrow. If we want to tackle issues like the high cost of living, we must ask...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely, Mr. Speaker, and I will say one important thing that's come on this project is that very typically departments do community readiness working plans on large scale infrastructure projects and would typically do them a year or so out from construction.
Mr. Speaker, the communities in the Sahtu have been are very clear. They want that work starting now, and so I can say we have put an application in to the federal government to realign some of the ICIP money that is supporting the Mackenzie Valley Highway so that we can get the working groups for these readiness...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are waiting to hear back from the federal government. We do have an application in for the whole funding. The importance of having 100 percent public dollars on this is that it means that it doesn't go on the ratepayers. It doesn't add to people's costs of power which, of course, are as I said earlier today, the highest in Canada. So it's very important, as the Minister responsible, that we are not putting this on the backs of ratepayers. Even though we want to ensure they have sustainable and reliable energy, we don't want people to be paying for costs they just can...
