Coalition to Save the Court Challenges Program (CCP)

The Court Challenges Program of Canada:
An Effective and Accountable Institution

• The Court Challenges Program of Canada (CCP) has an established track record as an effective and accountable institution that promotes access to justice.

• The CCP has existed in a number of different institutional forms since 1978. It has made a remarkable contribution to the development of constitutional law and to the rights of Canadians over the last 28 years. More work remains to be done.

• In 1994, the CCP was established as an independent not-for profit corporation. To date, it has been funded solely through a contribution agreement with the Government of Canada.

• The CCP is fully accountable to the Government of Canada. It provides quarterly reports on its activities to the government and publishes an annual report with statistics on the number and types of cases that it has funded. The annual reports are public documents and are available on the CCP's website: www.ccppcj.ca.

• The CCP is subject to some legal restrictions on reporting on funding in cases that are before the courts. This information is protected by solicitor-client privilege and cannot be released by CCP, in the same way that legal aid organizations cannot divulge information about their clients. The CCP's responsibility to protect this information was affirmed by a Federal Court ruling in 2000 (L'Hirondelle v. The Queen).

• The CCP is subject to a full and independent evaluation of its activities every five years. Since 1994, the CCP has been evaluated three times. On each occasion the independent evaluators found that the CCP was meeting the objectives set by the Government of Canada in a cost-effective manner and made unqualified recommendations that the CCP should continue to carry out its mandate.

• The last independent evaluation of the CCP was carried out in 2003-2004 and as a result of that evaluation government funding for the CCP was extended until March 2009.