Thanks, Mr. Falk.
We haven't given it much thought in depth. In the previous model, the litigation piece, it was case development, the litigation funding, and some negotiation dollars. I think for the pure litigation side that's important. I think the old program also had money for outreach and some impact studies. I think those pieces are important as well. In our view, the heart of it is the litigation funding, but that's not all. It isn't just the dollars for litigation. That's important for sure and we would like to see it. But part of it is also education and outreach.
Our society is arguably one of the richest societies in the history of humanity. But when you're disadvantaged, you don't have a lot of time to access Parliamentary committees, to go and seek out lawyers to take your case. You just tough it out in life, so part of it is the outreach, getting the message out to people who may have their rights infringed upon. We need to tell them they have a resource they could use to explore their rights, or to enforce their rights, against government action that's disadvantaging them. That's important.
The program also did a lot of work on capacity-building and researching the impact of decisions. It looked at future challenges and explored issues. At its heart, the CCP is a test case program. This is the reason we would like to see section 7 in there—it is rife with test case activity. It may fail. It may not. We don't know. That is for litigants to bring forward and for courts to decide. But to explore the contours of the charter, to fulfill the rights of disadvantaged and vulnerable people in this country, I think it's important to do all those.
I looked at some of the dollars in the old program. I've worked in the public sector a lot. I've worked in private sector. It's not a lot of dollars to fund the litigation, the amounts that the program did cover. It wasn't that they were writing a blank cheque to someone. It wasn't just an invitation to sue the government. It was really an encouragement model. It showed that there was other funding available and that this would top you up and get you capacity support and advice on strategy.
I believe it was Mr. Chipeur in the previous panel who said there was bias in selection. We're all humans. I guess there's always some bias. The issue is that there does need to be some vetting. The old program had about $2 million to $3 million annually. If I'm running that program, I'm not just going to hand over $50,000 or $60,000 to each one that comes in the door on a first-in basis. I want to fund the ones that have a chance of success in pushing the law forward, so this is important.
Without giving you dollar amounts, I'd say the funding needs to be increased, especially given that times change and litigation is costly. I'd say increase that funding, and make it stable and sustainable. I know my colleague and friend Mr. Bhabha was here recently. He talked about whether there was a constitutional right to charter challenges. That's an interesting point. If you think about it, disadvantaged people in this country can't access their rights. By virtue of being disadvantaged, the discrimination in the access process is itself a charter violation. He raises an important point. It's something you should think about in securing funding that is stable and bulletproof, as bulletproof as you can get it. It should be independent of government for sure.