federal government takes over troubled vaccine injury compensation program set up during covid pandemic
3 minute read
federal health minister marjorie michel.
blair gable/postmedia/file
the federal government has taken over running a controversial, no-fault vaccine injury compensation program launched in tandem with the covid-19 vaccine rollout.
the program — designed to compensate anyone who experienced a rare but serious injury after receiving any health canada approved vaccine, including covid vaccines — has seen a growing volume of “negative correspondence” from claimants, families and members of parliament in its five years of operation, officials with the public health agency of canada said at a technical briefing for media tuesday.
after the vaccine injury support program (visp) was announced in december 2020 by then prime minister justin trudeau, the program’s management was turned over to a private consulting firm, oxaro inc.
a global news investigation revealed that, as of last summer, of $50.6 million in taxpayer funding, $33.7 million had been spent on administrative costs, and just $16.9 million given to injured claimants. neither the government, nor oxaro, appreciated the number of injury claims visp would receive, global reported. many people complained of being given the runaround or having their applications rejected “by doctors they’ve never spoken to or met.”
about 225 claims that were denied by oxaro for not meeting their stricter eligibility criteria are now under review, government officials said.
under the program, claims had to be filed within three years after the date of vaccination, date of death or date when an injury first became apparent.
some claimants faced waits of 12 to 24 months before even having a medical assessment. many have still not been assessed. some people have been waiting years for an answer, government officials said. as of dec. 1, 2025, 3,557 claims had been filed with oxaro since june 2021.
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in response to the global news investigation, federal health minister marjorie michel announced an audit of the program. the agreement with oxaro ended march 31.
“now, i won’t tell you that we were satisfied with what oxaro was doing,” michel said at a house of commons health committee meeting in october.
“that’s why we decided to hand the program back to the government.”
michel told the committee requests are evaluated on a case-by-case basis and that compensation can run as high as $493,000.
vaccines saved lives during the pandemic, michel said. “thanks to modelling, we were able to see if it weren’t for the vaccines there would have been many more deaths and many more cases.
“it’s always unfortunate when people experience negative effects from vaccines, but that can also happen with many other types of treatment. it’s really unfortunate.”
more than 105 million covid vaccine doses, as well as countless other vaccines, including childhood shots, have been administered in canada since december 2020.
as of jan. 5, 2024, the last time the data were updated, health canada had received 58,712 reports of adverse events following immunization with a covid vaccine, representing 0.056 per cent of all doses administered.
of those, 11,702 (0.011 per cent of all doses) were considered serious and included 63 reported cases of cardiac arrest, 106 of cardiac failure and 1,231 of myocarditis and pericarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle and lining around the heart.
the new program — viap, or vaccine impact assistance program — “will continue to provide financial support to people vaccinated in canada” who have experienced a “serious and permanent” injury after receiving a vaccine, on or after dec. 8, 2020, the public health agency of canada said in a news release tuesday.
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“phac will be working to address the existing backlog of applications, while improving the consistency and transparency of the claims process,” the agency said.
in the coming months, people will be able to check the status of their application “in real time” and upload their medical files via a secure online portal, the government said. people with claims don’t need to reapply.
a total of $75 million was allocated for the first five years of the program; about a third of that went to payments to claimants. an additional $17.6 million is being invested as of april 1.
earlier this week, more than 650 claimants participated in a virtual information session regarding the upcoming changes.
canada was once the only g7 country to not have a national vaccine injury compensation program (quebec has been operating its own scheme for more than 30 years).
it was also the only g7 country to use a third-party, for-profit administrator, government officials said.
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