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.
Again, Madam Chair, the short answer is yes, and this is one where, I think, I'm fairly familiar with the extent of involvement in Whati because I know with the road going in, there was a real desire to make sure that there was a lot of work done with the community of Whati to the extent that they wanted it.
But what I would like to perhaps commit to doing is -- is offering to have the Member from Monfwi sit down with the folks at our North Slave office, who are the leads from ITI, who have been working directly with Tlicho, and we can walk through what we are doing and if there's gaps that she...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 83)
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm not sure if I am realizing what is different about the numbers I have versus not. Let me see if I can direct that to the deputy minister and see if perhaps I just misunderstood the question.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 83)
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, we're happy to do that, I mean but, again, it's the accountants of the Finance can come in and explain how this was done to comply with the accounting standards. But I'm going to be speaking to my colleagues about the departments that are actually responsible when the time comes to incur the costs, because this is reflective of an asset the asset's value as it's considers the fact of having to have it retired at some point. Yeah, there's a different conversation to be had that's Infrastructure, and I say, again, I suspect ENR.
I certainly wasn't...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 83)
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I don't have the information of that being under consideration right now. Perhaps I just check in with Mr. Wind and see if he has any comments on that question. Thanks.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 83)
Thank you, Madam Chair. So this is one of those examples where when there's changes being proposed and it's actually changes that are being proposed under the last capital plan, the departments are expected to notify MLAs of those changes and yet the Member for Monfwi did mention earlier to me this week that we should go through this letter, and I'm still happy to do that in more detail.
But just briefly, it's a situation where there's a surplus from one project, specifically a security fence around the North Arm Park, and so looking to take that. There's money that was allocated to an outhouse...
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 83)
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it is certainly my anticipation that it will be, and we'll have actuals ready in the fall to know exactly what numbers we have available to spend on capital at that time. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Debates of
, 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 83)
Thanks, Madam Chair. So I mean, in short, yes, there's, I think, fairly significantly different processes that are undergone when a major industrial project by a private actor is trying to get various licenses versus an accounting exercise to go in and determine what the value of an asset is that reflects potential costs.
So, you know, I can't speak to every sewage lagoon or the size of it or every fuel tank. I can't say that the intention here is not the same as an obligation to return an entire mine site to a natural state. This is an accounting exercise to understand, you know, what would...
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following five documents: Capital Estimates 2022-2023; Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 2, 2021-2022; Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures) No. 2, 2021-2022; GNWT Response to Motion 37-19(2): Creation of a Northwest Territories Food Security Strategy; and a Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 500-19(2): Governmental Renewal Initiative. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now the reason that the Northwest Territories continues to be a part of FFMC, it provides a stable and consistent floor for fishers to receive a price for their fish. It provides them a stable paycheque. And that's not a small thing in what is a -- what can be a very challenging industry.
But that said, it's a floor. And it's not necessarily one that markets the product to the extent that we believe it can be and should be and certainly doesn't get that high value for some of these side products that we also recognize that there are markets for.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I certainly was listening earlier to the Member's statement to the concern that the process is unwieldy and difficult. It is not a GNWT process, Mr. Speaker. It is a process governed by the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation to which we're a member. But it is not unfortunately, a process that I can directly change. We have offered support in the past. And I've not had anything raised to me until now that there's been any delays. So we're going to keep an eye on that. I'll certainly make inquiries to see if, in fact, there's been other delays. And if so...
