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 54)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I also think that, frankly, eServices and the work of ISSS is perhaps under-highlighted. It is not by accident that the chief information officer is with us today. The Member is right, that the first couple of bundles do include, for example, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Services, fishing licenses, healthcare cards, applications and renewals of some of the vital statistics items, so those are examples of the first two rounds of items that are going to be coming.

As for the rest, Mr. Wind has already mentioned the working group that will be existing that is cross...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Certainly, having cellular coverage over our highways would certainly improve safety. There is no question about that. I have not heard of the tourism aspect of it before today, so that is certainly an interesting aspect to have understood. We are taking steps, as I implied with my last answer. We are taking steps right now to have expressions of interest with respect to the highway through to Behchoko, between Behchoko and Yellowknife. It's my hope that, with that information, we will be able to look more broadly at other highways in the Northwest Territories.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Thank you, Madam Chair. No, we're not projecting to hit the borrowing limit this year or next year, and the reality is that there is a lot of projections in here that continue to be fairly conservative, not the least of which is the revenue projections. For example, the performance of our corporate sector or our industry sector, whether it's royalties or whether it's corporate taxes, we do tend to take a fairly conservative approach in terms of the projections. I am not concerned about hitting the borrowing limit here. The other side is, of course, there are contingencies built in both to the...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, certainly, work can continue with the consent of the union. We only just received the notice of bargain, I was going to say last month, but not quite; I believe it was in December. It hasn't been that long since that's occurred. I do very much believe in the importance of maintaining a good working relationship with the union, so any next step would have to involve consulting with them before any kind of other commitments could be made.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Thank you, Madam Chair. That's not reflected in the document. That is included in the main estimates. I believe the year that we are looking at right now would be in 2023-2024 as a projection. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Madam Chair, this is exactly why Mr. Wind is here. I will turn it over to him, please.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm pretty sure I asked the exact same question, and I asked it to the deputy minister. If I could perhaps impose on him to answer the Member, please.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Yes, please, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Thank you, Madam Chair. The item in purchased services is with respect to telecommunications services. There have been some updates to phone systems over the last couple of years, and as such, there have been some cost savings. That is an item that has not yet seen itself reflected in budgets. I certainly could commit to confirming whether or not that cost savings is one that will need to be reflected over time. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 54)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we can certainly get the information that has been completed to date on this. Lucky Department of Finance, we are up first to go through a government renewal process this spring, so it may well be that more comes out of that process. Of course, we will be continuing to bring all committee members, all members of the committee, up to speed as that process unfolds. Yes, in the meantime, we will get together what we can that has been put together. Just to make a comment, I agree with the Member's point some time ago that we need to improve the culture evaluation...