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. Yes, if we borrow more, we have to pay more but, Mr. Chair, the limit is just the maximum amount that we can borrow, not necessarily money that we are, in fact, borrowing, so that -- what would be proposed for -- to be available for borrowing comes through in the budget every year so you will see the -- that there's -- in the main estimates, one of the front end pages has the proposed borrowing plan and that is what's -- where it is reflecting amounts that are anticipated year to year, long-term debt and short-term debt. That's the portion that we would see potentially...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, utilities costs can and do include heating, electricity, water, sewage, garbage collection, so there are over 400 different individual assets that are managed by the Department of Infrastructure and depending on each community, there are some changes. One that I'd certainly point to quickly is the heating costs and obviously heating fuel, the cost both of providing it and then the actual costs have been very volatile over the last several years, including last year. Electricity costs obviously saw a bit of an increase already in July. And water/sewage may be...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So although the initial declaration of the outbreak began, I believe with a case that was identified here, what ultimately wound up happening in terms of the case management and the case identification, it extended to beyond Yellowknife to the Tlicho region as well as to the Deh Cho region. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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.
