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. I hope I understood correctly whether or not fiscal -- the attempt to have a fiscal strategy that is premised on balance is moot, if we get a borrowing limit increase. If that's so, Mr. Chair, I would say no. The fiscal strategy is really how we propose to manage the available revenues of government over the course of the four years balanced against projected expenses over the four years. And, Mr. Chair, it's certainly been -- you know, we can look back over the course of 20 years and see that sort of slow steady growth of the debt and its little spikes and then, you know...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, that is a request for a shortfall that is being experienced both at NTHSSA and the Tlicho Community Services Agency, and so there's some for agency nurses as well as agency nurses is about $1.9 million, but then you also have paramedics at 1.4 and pharmacists in addition to that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can't say for sure one way or the other. I would not be surprised if there are occasions that there may be some gap in time if services are moving one way or the other. I will certainly have to get that confirmed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I guess I'm not sure that my observations are necessarily the same in that the Department of Health and Social Services has seen a rather exponential growth in its budget over the last sort of five years, if you will, at a growth rate or more in excess and significant than that of other departments. And largely that is driven by, well, the cost of services going up significantly but also the number of health care work staff, labour force, physicians, nurses, as well as others, for example to support the nurses that are there. So we right now, for example, I...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I did, after some of the discussions last week, just over the weekend, ask to look at how the two supplementary appropriations have come forward, if we could sort of categorize them to have some data that helps us better understand, I'm certainly happy to take this to Members and share with them on a go-forward basis and with any future supplementary appropriations that may be sought over the life of this government, just to help understand what is driving the different supplementary requests. I can say that we wound up about -- over a hundred million of it...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, on my left, Bill MacKay as deputy minister of finance. And on my right, Mandi Bolstad as the deputy secretary to the financial management board.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I can't speak to that. I don't have that level of detail here on the supplementary estimates document. I'm certainly happy to get back to the Member maybe with my other hat on another day. Thank you.
Yes, Mr. Chair, I was going to suggest that that -- what may or may not be happening on a broader and systemic scale is probably best directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services but if that's not necessarily required for this moment, then I'll not redirect it over there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, Mr. Chair, Ministers continue to be Ministers so if there is some new uncertainty, the first thing that I'm doing is phoning the Minister and asking why this isn't getting done a little faster. And so my hope is that we are not going to be in that situation. We are still projecting to be under our limit at the end of this fiscal year so we have, you know -- and then we are still -- would then beginning the April 1st year with a new appropriation. So, again, expecting to remain fine and going into the next year as well as of April 1st. It's just that we don't -- we...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, with respect to any major works, they certainly do try to consider timing and availability of backups and obviously certainly at some point extreme weather. Again, with routine maintenance, Mr. Speaker, there's a concern that they've been wanting to maintain reliability so not wanting to wait. At this point, we are expecting the Taltson to be back online I think later this month, subject to confirming that. But with that, that obviously provides a pretty significant source of primary power. So, you know, again, understand the concerns and do want to...
