Colleagues, this past weekend, February 28th to March 2nd, was a very busy weekend for me. As you are all aware, the King Charles III Coronation Medal presentation happened Friday evening with the Premier, Commissioner, Senator and MP and recipients that were in Yellowknife. I would like to recognize the people that were nominated from the Nahendeh Riding.

• Nominated by the Premier: Deneze James Nakehk'o, Lucy Jane Simon, and Soham Srimani
• Nominated by the Senator: Chief Kele Antoine, Gilbert Cazon, and our own Mary Jane Cazon

I would like to thank the Premier for allowing me the pleasure of handing out the medals to Lucy and Soham.

Saturday morning, I had the pleasure of attending the NWTAC interactive sessions, the AGM and the closing banquet and awards ceremony. Much to my surprise, the Nahendeh riding did well receiving three awards:

• Margaret Ireland received the 2025 Community Service Award;
• Sambaa K'e First Nation received the 2025 Community Builder Award; and
• Jean Marie River received the 2025 Climate Change Resilience Award.
• As well, a good friend of mine, Ms. Eleanor Young, won the Evelyn Krutko Mighty Warrior Award, and I was honored to see her get this award.

Colleagues, at both events, each presenter provided a speech and it was given to me, and I have attached them to the end of my statement, which I would like them deemed as read and printed in the Hansard.

King Charles III Coronations Medal - Premier's

Lucy Jane Simon has maintaining and preserving the history and the culture of Jean Marie River through on the land practices and art. She is a very talented artist known throughout the NWT and nationally with some of her work displayed at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Lucy was employed with the Government as a Community Health Worker for 25 years. She is a successful businesswoman managing her own B&B for the past 22 year and 2020 Dehcho Wise Women Award Winner.

Soham Srimani's contributions to the community of Nahanni Butte have helped improved the lives of its residents. Through his hard work and out of the box thinking, he has been instrumental in getting multiple new residential housing projects for the community, leading economic development initiatives and helped create a number of jobs for residents. From store expansion to getting a post office in community to construction of Arbor, he planned these infrastructure projects from scratch.