The group representing the interests of the Yukon’s francophone community is making its demands known ahead of the impending territorial election.

The non-profit Association franco-yukonnaise (AFY) released a booklet Thursday. It lists some 30 desired changes in the areas of health, culture, employment and education, among others.

In Taking action for a vibrant and dynamic Yukon francophone community, AFY appeals to all orders of government to take stock of the value gained by protecting and promoting the French language and francophone culture in the Yukon.

“Francophones are everywhere: we work in the community, we volunteer,”AFY president Angélique Bernard told a press conference at AFY headquarters in Whitehorse.

“By improving the lives of francophones, you improve the life of the whole territory.”

AFY hopes the booklet will offer Yukoners, both francophone and anglophone, a compendium of issues affecting French-speakers that can be presented to candidates when they come knocking at the door.

More than 4,500 Yukoners (or 13 per cent of the territory’s population) were French speakers at last count in 2011. Of those, about 1,630 named French as their first language.

In 2011, the Yukon was the “most bilingual” jurisdiction in Canada after Quebec and New Brunswick, according to the AFY document.

Bernard believes the Yukon’s French-speaking population is even larger now.

“I’m not a statistician, but... just by looking at the state of our school (École Émilie-Tremblay), it’s bursting at the seam,” she said.

Topping AFY’s list of demands is a request for the Yukon government to establish an Office of the Commissioner of Languages. That would handle complaints from Yukoners who experience barriers accessing French-language services.

This would require amending the Yukon’s Languages Act.

The organization also wants to see trustee positions designated for French-speakers on the boards of the Yukon Hospital Corp. and Yukon College.

“These are actions that don’t require money, they just require changes in the legislation,” said Bernard.

Expanding French services in the health care system is another key demand.

Bernard offered this example:

“We have people going to emergency that are bilingual, but under the stress of having a heart attack or something, will revert to their first language.

“So it would be important to have bilingual employees that can offer the service on site and not have to call and wait for someone who’s French who’s in the hospital.”

AFY’s booklet highlights a need for enhanced mental health services in French and recommends setting up a French-language telephone helpline.

Ideally, there would be frontline, bilingual staff in positions across health and social services, said Bernard.

From the federal government, AFY is calling for more support for francophone immigrants.

Canada’s goal is to have francophones make up 4.4 per cent of all economic immigrants (to jurisdictions other than Quebec) by 2023.

AFY says that if the feds want to meet that target in the Yukon, they need to provide the non-profit with a steady stream of cash.

Isabelle Salesse, AFY’s executive director, said her organization depends on federal funding to support francophone newcomers to the territory, and in the past, that funding has been “very unstable.”

“We never know how much we’re going to get,” she said.

Salesse noted that AFY can’t always afford a full-time staffer to provide French-language services to francophone immigrants, which is something they’d like.

They’d also like to see the French test that is required for permanent residency status offered in the Yukon.

Right now, prospective skilled immigrants must write this test in one of the provinces.

Salesse and Bernard agree that the Yukon already scores pretty high for its French-language services.

Bernard said recent francophone transplants have told her they chose the Yukon because it’s hospitable to French speakers.

“Because we have a French daycare, we have a school, we have a newspaper, we have a Salle de la Francophonie and we have access to services,” she said.

In anglophone Yukon, added Salesse, there is broad interest, among adults and young people, in learning French as a second language.

Still, if AFY’s booklet is any indication, there is more that can be done to improve life in the Yukon for the francophone community.

Bernard wouldn’t object to more bilingual MLAs in the legislative assembly, but said as it stands, the community has strong support from all three parties.

Salesse said whether or not a representative speaks French fluently is not the issue.

“The main issue is recognizing the importance and the value of the francophone community within the bigger community,” she said.

“If we do have to present a document like (Taking action for a vibrant and dynamic Yukon francophone community), it’s that we still have some issues that are not dealt with.”

Elaine Taylor, the minister responsible for the territory’s French-language services, is out of the territory and unavailable for comment on AFY’s goals.