The federal government program, designed during the pandemic to compensate those injured seriously and forever by vaccines, is a “failure” and a “breaking out of trust,” opposition parties say.
A five-month global news survey of the Vaccine Injury Assistance Program (VISP), which includes more than 30 interviews with current and former Oxalo employees, injured claimants and their attorneys, revealed that the company has discovered equipment to fully provide the program's mission.
The federal government has launched a compliance audit to determine whether the Ottawa consulting company mismanages its Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP), and reports that officials from the Canadian Public Health Agency surprised the company's office on July 3.
“When you read the global news report, people are not receiving proper compensation and the description of the playground environment in this very serious programme is shocking and sad to hear,” said Conservative MP Matt Strauss.
Strauss sat on the House Health Committee and worked as an emergency physician and proxy medical officer in Haldimand Norfolk, Ontario. Before being elected to a member of the Congress.
He said, “I think the most surprising fact is that around 3,000 claims have been made. They haven't even gotten half of them… It's shocking, and it's not right. It's a violation of trust.”
Health Canada reported 11,702 serious adverse events following the Covid-19 vaccine.
This corresponds to 0.011% of the 105,015,456 doses administered as of December 2023.
“The government has effectively assured Canadians that any injuries or deaths caused by the vaccine will be fully compensated by accessible programs. I think the programmes that the liberal government ultimately implemented are completely failing Canadians.”
Kelly Bowman, a bioethicist at the University of Toronto, expressed similar concerns.
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“I'm scared,” Bowman said. “It's scary how it looks like it's being treated so badly.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later announced the Vaccine Injury Assistance Program (VISP) in December 2020.
The effort, which began six months later, aims to help those seriously and permanently injured by the Canadian licensed vaccines managed nationally since December 8, 2020.
Approved claimants may receive temporary injury or death payments, ongoing income exchange, and medical expenses refunds.
However, instead of the government running VISP, Canada has chosen to outsource the work, as is done in similar programs in the US, UK, France and Germany.
In March 2021, the government hired Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Consulting, now known as Oxalo, to administer the program.
The challenge began shortly after its release.
A global news survey revealed complaints that the program failed to fulfill its promise of “fair and timely” access to financial support for injured people.
The five-month investigation is based on over 30 interviews with injured and sick people, former VISP workers and lawyers who claim their efforts are mismanaged, and claimants feel angry, abandoned, abused and even abused.
In an emailed response to Global News, Oxaro said it was a new program and adapted its operations to meet a higher volume than expected.
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In response to a 15-page question list, the company said, “VISP is a new, demand-based program with an unknown and variable number of applications and appeals submitted by claimants.”
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“The program's processes, procedures and staffing have been adapted to face challenges associated with receiving significantly more applications than originally planned,” Oxaro added.
“Oxalo and PHAC have worked closely together to assess how programs can remain agile to handle workloads at hand, while respecting budget constraints.”
The complexity of the claims filed could also affect the processing timeline, Oxaro said.
“The timeline for eligibility and support decisions depends on the nature and complexity of the claim. All claims are assessed individually by a medical professional. The process includes a review of all necessary medical documents and a review of current medical evidence.
Meanwhile, PHAC says it is reviewing Oxaro's five-year arrangement to manage VISPs scheduled for renewal next year.
Bowman said the situation only exacerbates vaccine hesitation.
“The public will argue that not only will some people push the vaccine back, but they will try to feed the growing trend of vaccine hesitantness, even if something goes wrong and not seeking support. That's very problematic for all of us,” he said.
Both Strauss and Davies compared the Arrivecan App program, which faces scrutiny over the cost and contracts of apps in the pandemic era.
“I think there needs to be a lot of transparency and accountability on both the arrival app and now this VISP program to help Canadians trust the public health program once again, and to get a sense of what happened,” Strauss said.
Davis also cited the Arrival App as an example of what he described as a bigger issue.
“I think this is part of a much broader issue we've seen in liberal government over the past decade. It's actually an explosion of the use of external consultants,” he said.
“We hope that the ministry will take over this program. They will be directly responsible for the minister and taxpayers at least. If external consultants are unable to do that properly, it should be done by civil servants in the Ministry of Health.”