The ability to pay may be proven by showing that the responding spouse has sufficient separate assets, following the division of the marital property and / or sufficient earning capacity to consistently provide the petitioning spouse with the necessary funds to enable him or her to maintain the spouse's former marital standard of living. (charlottechristianlaw.com)
Amount — the marital standard of living is relevant but not decisive and should be carefully weighed against the objective of eventual independence. (hfclaw.com)
In longer marriages the courts measure need against the marital standard of living or the payor's post-separation standard of living: Chutter at para. 59; Hodgkinson v. Hodgkinson, 2006 BCCA 158 at paras. 68 - 69. (macleanfamilylaw.ca)