A Yukon Supreme Court judge has ordered a new French-language school be built in Whitehorse.

The 317-page ruling by Justice Vital Ouellette was released to the public Wednesday.

It gives the government two years to build a new high school school to accommodate 150 French-speaking students.

The decision comes after a two-year battle between the government and the Commission scolaire francophone du Yukon, which operates École Émilie-Tremblay in Whitehorse.

Ouellette also ordered the government to restore $1.95 million which he said was earmarked for French first-language programs and had instead gone to French immersion programs.

The government said today it intends to appeal the decision.

The new school is to include a gymnasium, arts classroom and computer labs, the judge ruled.

He also ordered that two portables be added to École Émilie-Tremblay by September.

"We are very pleased with the decision,” said Andre Bourcier, president of the Commission scolaire francophone du Yukon.

"It is a historic step in favour of French people in Yukon.”

Board officials argued they can no longer retain francophone students through the high school grades because of poor, overcrowded facilities.

Bourcier said the ruling will allow the school to attract more students and teachers to put on all the courses students want.

"Through this ruling, we will be able to compete with other schools,” he said.

Government lawyer Max Faille said the government does not have an estimate regarding the cost of a new school.

During the trial, the plaintiffs estimated the cost to be anywhere $15 million to $45 million, Faille said.

Currently there are 203 students enrolled to start school at École Émilie-Tremblay in September – 46 of those are high school students, Bourcier said.

That is up from from 183 students last year.

Faille said the ruling is granting French-speaking students something that goes "well beyond” what other language groups would receive based on size.

Faille said section 23 of the Charter – a constitutional guarantee for minority language rights – includes a "sliding scale” based on what the population warrants.

"If this ruling were allowed to stand, that part of the law would be pushed aside,” he said.

The government also believes the judge has a numerous biases when it comes to this case, Faille said.

While arguing the case, government lawyers noted that before he was called to the bench in 2002, Ouellette had been a promoter of French-language and education in Alberta.

From 1994 to 1998, Ouellette was the president of the Conseil scolaire francophone du Nord-Est de l'Alberta.

Between 1999 and 2001, he was an executive member of l'Association canadienne-française de l'Alberta.

The government has 30 days to officially file an appeal.

The court also ruled that École Émilie-Tremblay should have control over its own admissions process.

"Immigrants can come to Canada and decide to learn in either of the official languages,” Bourcier said.

"The government gave very strict restrictions on who we could accept and who we couldn't.”

Regis St-Pierre, co-executive director of the Association franco-yukonnaise, said the ruling goes beyond the original scope of the case because it orders the government to communicate with École Émilie-Tremblay in French.

French speakers in the Yukon have long struggled to find government officials who are fluent in their language, St-Pierre said.

There are now fewer fluent French-speakers employed by the government than there were 15 years ago, St-Pierre said.

"People should not have to choose between their language and getting the care they need from the government,” he said.

Bourcier said 15 per cent of Yukoners come from a French background but only four per cent maintain the language.

The court has asked for updates on the case every three months, Bourcier said.