Mr. Delorey, your time for your Member's statement is over.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays, Mr. Delorey, you may continue.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Speaking on behalf of residents of Hay River and the travelling tourists, again I ask the department to look at opening the gate at Escarpment Creek and allowing the people to enjoy that campground. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

The Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays, Mr. Antoine, you may conclude.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Item 3, Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to Oral Question asked by the Member for Yellowknife South on June 8, 2001. The Member asked me some questions about the detailed costs of the permit fees proposed under the Commercial Vehicle Trip Permit Act. I was unable to give him specific examples at the time and took the question as notice.

The following week, on June 14, 2001, I tabled an information package on the Highway Strategy and the Commercial Vehicle Trip Permit Act that included a map of the proposed public highway permit zones, the truck axle configurations and the zone to zone permit fees by truck type. The information package allows a person to work out the amount of the highway permit fee for any kind of truck carrying a load between any two points on the territorial public highway system.

Since the information package was tabled, I hope the Member has found it helpful in showing how the permitting system is intended to work and the amount of the permit fees applicable to the different communities in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Item 4, returns to oral questions. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to an Oral Question asked by Mr. Dent on Thursday, June 14, 2001, regarding the privatization of laundry services at Stanton Regional Hospital.

Representatives of the Stanton Regional Health Board met with representatives of the Union of Northern Workers on January 30, 2001. Consistent with section 38.02 of the collective agreement, the Union of Northern Workers was given notice by the Stanton Regional Health Board that they were considering plans to contract out laundry services.

With respect to the rationale provided, the Union of Northern Workers was informed that for the fiscal year ending March 2000, the Stanton Regional Health Board had a deficit of approximately $1.6 million. In an attempt to address this situation, the board had developed a proposed deficit recovery plan which outlined several initiatives aimed at decreasing operating costs without affecting service delivery to residents. One of those initiatives was the privatization of laundry services. The privatization of these services involved the elimination of four positions at the hospital.

Stanton did not receive any feedback from the UNW following the January 30, 2001 meeting. In an effort to ensure that the UNW has every opportunity to be part of this process, Stanton provided written notice of the intent to contract out laundry services on June 20, 2001.

Since that time, human resources staff at Stanton have been working with affected employees to ensure they are aware of and able to access all the options available to them under the staff retention policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Welcome to the Assembly. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, in my statement I relayed the information I know of a missing boy at the Bosco Treatment Facility in Alberta. My question is for the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services. What information can the Minister provide us now about the search for the missing boy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member has already stated, he is aware that information regarding specific child welfare cases is strictly confidential so it would not be appropriate to respond to the particulars of this case. However, it might be helpful to talk about the situation in somewhat more general terms.

Mr. Speaker, we concur that it is very worrisome when children run away from a treatment facility, and there is a process that is followed when something like this occurs. When children are admitted to southern treatment facilities they usually are displaying fairly serious behaviours. They are in the south because they need treatment that we do not have available here in the North.

We do have, as a department, contractual arrangements with three licensed provincial facilities and these facilities do specialize in more severe emotional and psychological problems. At any given time I can tell you that there are about 30 children who are in the south for various reasons, and in cases where children do run away from the facility, the RCMP, social worker and the family are informed as well as the legal guardian. That is the process that is followed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the answer and the information which the Minister can provide and I understand that there are some limitations. I would like the Minister to explain why the department and the family has not been involved any further with information and updates about the search.

I will grant that notice was, as I understand at least, given to the mother, but in the two days, no further information has been provided. This does not seem appropriate. Again, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain why the department and the family has not been involved with information about the search?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is the standard practice that the department would be advised if there is a child who has run away from a facility, and they would also be regularly updated on the status of the attempts to return the child to the facility.

This is done both through the caseworker and the facility itself, in this case the Bosco facility. The caseworker would be involved in also informing the family of the status. Certainly, I have asked officials in my department to speak with the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Board and the caseworker to be as accommodating to the parent as possible. If this has failed to occur, that is of concern to me and I want to assure the Member that we will ensure that the superintendent of child welfare follows up on this. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask in more general terms, what are the conditions of service that our government has with Bosco Homes? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.