A federal government program designed during the pandemic to compensate people who have been seriously and permanently injured by vaccines is “failing” and a “breach of trust,” say opposition parties.
A five-month-long Global News investigation of the Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP), involving more than 30 interviews with current and former Oxaro employees, injured claimants and their attorneys, uncovered allegations that the company was unequipped to deliver fully on the program’s mission, questions about why the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) chose this company over others, and internal documents that suggest poor planning from the start.
The federal government has launched a compliance audit to determine if an Ottawa consulting company is mismanaging the Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP), and Public Health Agency of Canada officials made a surprise visit to the firm’s offices in mid-June, Global News reported on July 3.
“Reading the Global News reporting, folks are not receiving adequate compensation and the descriptions of the sort of playground environment at this very serious program are shocking, disappointing to hear,” said Conservative MP Matt Strauss.
Strauss sits on the House of Commons health committee and worked as a critical care specialist prior to being elected as a member of Parliament.
He added, “I think the most startling fact is of the 3,000 or so claims that were made, they haven’t even gotten through half of them … it’s shocking, it’s not right. It’s a breach of trust.”
There have been 11,702 reports of serious adverse events following a COVID-19 vaccination, according to Health Canada.
That’s equal to 0.011 per cent of the 105,015,456 doses administered as of December 2023.
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“The government stepped in and gave Canadians an assurance that any injuries or death, as a matter of fact, that were caused by the vaccines would be fully compensated by a program that was accessible. I would say that the program that the Liberal government did finally implement is failing Canadians utterly,” said interim NDP Leader Don Davies.
Kerry Bowman, bioethicist at the University of Toronto, voiced similar concerns.
“I’m horrified,” said Bowman. “I’m horrified that it seems that it’s been handled just so very badly.”
Then-prime minister Justin Trudeau announced the Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP) in December 2020.
The effort, which began six months later, aimed to support people who have been seriously and permanently injured by any Health Canada-authorized vaccine administered in the country on or after Dec. 8, 2020.
Approved claimants could receive lump sum injury or death payouts, ongoing income replacement, and reimbursement of medical expenses.
But instead of the government operating VISP, as is done with similar programs in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, Canada elected to outsource the work.
In March 2021, the government hired Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Consulting Inc. — now called Oxaro Inc. — to administer the program.
The challenges began soon after it launched.
A Global News investigation has uncovered complaints that the program has failed to deliver on its promise of “fair and timely” access to financial support for the injured.
This five-month probe is based on more than 30 interviews with injured and ill people, former VISP workers, and attorneys who allege the effort is being mismanaged, leaving claimants feeling angry, abandoned, uncared for, and even abused.
Oxaro said in an emailed response to Global News that this is a new program and it has adapted its operations to meet higher-than-expected volumes.
In response to a 15-page list of questions, the company said, “The VISP is a new and demand-based program with an unknown and fluctuating number of applications and appeals submitted by claimants.”
“The program processes, procedures and staffing were adapted to face the challenges linked to receiving substantially more applications than originally planned,” Oxaro added.
“Oxaro and PHAC have been collaborating closely to evaluate how the program can remain agile to handle the workload on hand while respecting budget constraints.”
The complexity of the claims filed can also affect processing timelines, Oxaro said.
“Timelines for a determination of eligibility and support will depend on the nature and complexity of the claim. All claims will be individually assessed by medical experts. The process will include a review of all required and relevant medical documentation, as well as current medical evidence, to determine if there is a probable link between the injury and the vaccine.”
PHAC, meanwhile, has said it is reviewing Oxaro’s five-year arrangement to administer VISP, which is up for renewal next year.
Bowman said the situation would only make vaccine hesitancy worse.
“The public will see, not only are some people pushing back on vaccines, but even if something goes wrong, you’re not going to get support I would argue that it’s going to feed into growing trends of vaccine hesitancy. That’s very problematic for all of us,” he said.
Both Strauss and Davies drew comparisons to the ArriveCan app program, which has faced scrutiny over the costs and contracting for the pandemic-era app.
“I think we need a lot of transparency and accountability around both the ArriveCan app and now this VISP program to figure out what the heck went on so that Canadians can have trust in public health programs again,” Strauss said.
Davies also cited the ArriveCan app as an example of what he described as a larger problem.
“I think this is part of a much broader problem that we’ve seen with the Liberal government over the last decade, really, which is an explosion in the use of outside consultants,” he said.
“I’d like to see the ministry take over this program. They’re at least accountable directly to the minister and to taxpayers. If the outside consultants can’t do it properly, it should be done by public servants who are in the ministry of health.”
