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
Mobile
Minister
Email

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 31)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Right now we're showing 2026-2027 as the fiscal year when the project will be fully complete. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 31)

Mr. Speaker, I'm not going to make that commitment here today. Again, I'm live to the challenges of transportation infrastructure in the North and the fact that we are challenged with our transportation infrastructure in the North, but doing a feasibility study at this point, given the challenges that we're having and given that we're right now trying to get the Mackenzie Valley Highway done, it may well be that we're in a situation where we want to get one thing done and then we can move on to looking at the next. But at this point, that's not a project that is on the near horizon. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 31)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, until 1997, the dredging of the Hay River harbour was, in fact, completed by Public Works and Government Services Canada on behalf of Transport Canada. Indeed, the coast guard does rely on the accessible channel and the ability to move their ships and vessels through this very same space. However, for reasons I'm certainly not privy to, between 1997 and 2012, that started to change. The GNWT was relying on funding and started to undertake the work. There was still at that time a memorandum of understanding with the Canadian coast guard and Department of...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 31)

Sorry, Mr. Chair. I realize I didn't quite finish my thought before I finished speaking. It's into next fiscal year. So the 2025.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 31)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't know the per kilometer cost of the winter road offhand. I certainly can get that. There's different costs for some of the different roads as well, so I'll make sure that I'm getting the one for that stretch, and I'll commit to get that back to the Member here quickly. Thank you.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 31)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the current Territorial Health Investment Fund goes until March 31st, and the -- it does support work in a number of different areas with respect specifically to -- there's -- this one -- yes, this one goes until 2028, and that's -- so that would be the timeline for the health care system sustainability unit. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 31)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left is Bill MacKay, the deputy minister of finance. And on my right Mandi Bolstad, deputy secretary to the financial management board.

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 31)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is firstly a shared initiative between different departments and one where we've -- although Infrastructure has been the lead under the element of being an energy -- the energy lead, ECC and ITI are both also engaged from the GNWT's perspective. One of the critical steps that we had to undertake was to ensure that we were properly engaged in aligning with priorities from the Council of Leaders and meeting therefore with IGOs and, indeed, the next step, I'm told and, in fact, is to take the -- what we've got from this group now to industry, and I expect...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 31)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, yes, it is being pursued. However, the circumstance that we found ourselves in, as the weather was starting to turn and as the location where some individuals were had been using as an encampment had another purpose assigned to it, namely, for public housing, a situation -- or a solution had to be found more quickly. So, again, another shout-out, really, to the non-profit sector for working very closely with the GNWT. A very lengthy and thorough review was done of every possible location in the city from hotels to available units and that's where these...

Debates of , 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 31)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am here to present Tabled Document 200-20(1), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2024-2025. And I'll do a brief introduction to that before going to the next.

This document proposes a total increase of $236,000, comprised of the following items:

A $50,000 transfer of previously approved operations expenditure funding to infrastructure expenditure, allocated for the purchase of digital dispatch consoles;

$993,000 for increased construction costs associated with the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk fibre line;

$1.95 million to finalize the transfer...