As I recall, a comment made by then prime minister Harper at the time asked why we would pay for people to sue us. I think that is a problematic perspective. It's the wrong question. I think about it differently. The cost of justice can be prohibitively expensive, so justice should not be decided by who has the most money. It's a significant public good that the constitutional rights of Canadians be protected, whether or not they have money.
That's the point of the Court Challenges Program. People who are well-heeled and affluent can take matters to court on their own dime, but people who are less well off need their rights to be protected as well. They can make application to the Court Challenges Program to help them fund their initiative. If it's seen by the panellists who administer this program to be of sufficient public value, they will arguably get funded. That means that justice is available to people of all walks of life at all economic levels.