Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity to attend part of the previous NWTAC and LGANT AGM. Part of the agenda was their awards ceremony. NWTAC was pleased to present the first of two 2022 community service awards. The first award winner was Soham Srimani. They spoke about his commitment, drive, and creative skills that has nurtured the community of Nahanni Butte. Through his administrative efforts and drive, the community has received funding for various projects, some which include housing projects, infrastructure projects, tourism, and marketing projects. All of this has benefited the community of Nahanni Butte. He has also done a commendable job in conducting mental health and youth development programs in the community. Nominated by several members of the Nahanni Butte's council, the NWTAC was pleased to present the community service award to Soham.
Mr. Speaker, LGANT presented the 2021 and 2022 Band Manager Mentor Award winner to Soham, the band manager from Nahanni Butte Dene Band. This award was given out by the band managers working group and encourages professional learning and peer support among First Nation administrators in the Northwest Territories. The award goes to the band manager that has exemplified the spirit of the band managers working group by offering support and advice to their colleagues in the past year.
Mr. Speaker, I realize that I am not going to do justice to Soham's nomination, but I did take a few paragraphs from many of the letters of support for him from the community and their leadership.
Before Soham took the job, they had six band managers over a four-year span. This resulted in a lot of administrative issues for the community. Thanks to Soham, he managed these issues well, created a proper record management system in both offline and online module and took care of past due reports for various funding received, even pending reports dated back to 2014. He has proved his administrative, managerial, and reporting skills and the community is very fond of him.
Apart from his regular band management duties, he is also involved in the community youth training, conducting seminars, and helping out community members in various capacities. His involvement in housing projects, infrastructure projects, tourism and marketing projects, coordinating with various government departments for funding proposals, approvals, implementation, and team management have been commendable and the community is very happy to have him.
Mr. Speaker, I realize my time and I would like to thank Soham for great work and ask that the rest of this statement be deemed as read. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Soham was instrumental in securing funding for a 4plex residential construction project (funded by NWT Housing Corporation), a 10plex residential construction project (SEED funding approved by CMHC), Arbor construction project (funded by CanNor), an allweather stage construction project (funding approved from Infrastructure Canada), a new boat ramp project (funded by Department of Infrastructure, GNWT) and getting a Canada Post office in community with a dedicated postal code. He has done commendable job in conducting mental health programs and youth development programs in the community. He had helped to restructure our development corporation this year and getting approval from Nutrition North for our general store. Apart from being one of the best band managers Nahanni Butte ever had, Soham has been instrumental in restructuring the Naha Dehe Development Corporation. He has hired people to operate the corporation from community and training them inperson. The development corporation, under his guidance, started generating income in less than three months. In previous years, the corporation was suffering loss after loss, but thanks to Soham, we have taken the necessary actions to make the corporation operational and profitable.
Mr. Speaker, as I said previously, the nominations and letters of support came in from members of council, their employees, and residents of the community. One of the key themes in all the letters of support were Soham's willingness and eagerness to help people. He is patient and willing to invest the time in training and involving himself as part of the training process. He has made a great impact on the community in many various ways including financial, mentoring, teaching and learning from the community.
Mr. Speaker, Soham was a worthy winner for the awards by both organizations. As the MLA for the riding, I am very proud to recognize him here today. Mashi cho, Soham.
