An innovative program of the British Columbia-Yukon Command of the Royal Canadian Legion may help the territory with its doctors shortage.

The Legion provides $60,000 annually to the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Since 1978, more than 200 family doctors have graduated from the program. Dr. Robert Woollard, the chair of the department, says as the program continues to expand, there will be more opportunities for doctors to come to the Yukon.

'As we've expanded the medical school, one of the good things about that is that we're needing more sites for training, and increasingly, the Yukon is seen as a very positive,' he said in an interview yesterday.

Woollard was speaking to the 332 Legion delegates at the provincial command convention taking place at the Mount McIntyre Recreation Centre this week.

There are more than 900 people involved in the program at UBC, he said. The department focuses on education and research into family practice and provides opportunities for their students to work throughout rural British Columbia and the territories.

Many of the students go on to become specialists, family doctors and researchers in rural and aboriginal medicine, he added.

'One of the challenges we have in my discipline is the dramatic shortage of family docs,' he said, which is an issue the Yukon is quite familiar with.

Many trainees from the program already come to the Yukon, he added, and the department is exploring developing a focus site in the Yukon for the program.

Local doctor Ken Quong has been providing some leadership in looking at expanding the program to the Yukon, Woollard said.

He also said many doctors who choose to come up to the Yukon during their residency later return. He used Dawson City-based Doctor Gerard Parsons as an example.

'There's not always been the kind of commitment the Legion has shown to say it's important to have front-line docs,' said Woollard.

'It's important to have front-line docs that care about the whole range of health challenges that we have, and it's important to have family docs that will take a committment to long-term involvement with elderly patients.'

Bud Alcorn, outgoing president of the provincial command, said he wanted to ensure that the Yukon branches of the Legion are aware of the program and that Yukoners are able to benefit from it.

'There are sometimes that misconception that certain things are not available to them, so I will be assuring the branch here before I leave that all our programs are totally available to them and certainly, we can assist anyone up here through the aims and objectives of our foundation,' he said. 'We'd be more than happy to do so.'

Alcorn added this type of foundation is just one example of how the Legion is evolving its mandate to include service to the entire community and not just veterans and their dependents.

'The mandate of our organization has expanded beyond just the veterans to the seniors in our community and also to the youth in our community. In other words, we aren't focused on one particular group; we service the Canadian community at large,' he said.

The Legion has a variety of programs directed at seniors and youth. The local branch just recently announced plans for building affordable housing units for seniors in what is now the River View Hotel (formerly the Regina).

The Legion also has art contests and track and field programs for youth, said Alcorn, as well as youth auxiliaries in some branches.

It's important for the Legion to be conscious of youth involvement, he said, to ensure the organization continues on into the future.

'If we can project the proper image of the Legion to the young people, hopefully they are the ones who can in future years come forward to take a position to be with the Legion and to ensure that we continue to carry on for many decades to come,' he said.

Youth still often perceive veterans to be their grandfathers, Alcorn said. It's important to remind them that in this day and age, veterans are all types of people, including voting delegate Terri Olsen, who led the VIP delegation at the Legion's parade to Veterans' Square at city hall last Sunday.

'She certainly isn't my grandfather or my grandmother,' he said.

Olsen has served four tours of duty overseas, including in the Persian Gulf War in 1991, two peacekeeping missions in the former Yugoslavia and some time in South Africa.

'Well, first of all, I thought the Legion was a place that old people went,' Olsen said in an interview Tuesday. 'I didn't understand what it was all about.'

She said since she has become involved in the Legion, she has realized the organization isn't about 'beer and bingo' or about 'old people.'

'The day I went in there and joined and became a volunteer, I realized that that's not what it's all about,' she said.

'I want to preserve the remembrance of those who fought for us to have the opportunity today to talk. I want to preserve the memory of those who, and still do serve, for our freedom.

'We don't just support the veterans, we support the community,' she added.

'They're creative supporters of positive change,' Woollard said of the Legion's programs.

There are more than 447,000 Legion members across Canada, with 88,000 serving the B.C.-Yukon command.

The command's convention began last Sunday and will conclude this afternoon. Its purpose was to discuss Legion programs and resolutions.

Much of the convention was meant to focus on the restructuring of the organization, said Alcorn. Continued debate, however, has caused the voting on the resolutions to be pushed back to the next convention in June 2007.