Canadian government taking over vaccine injury compensation program
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The federal public health agency is taking over administration of a program that compensates people injured by vaccines, after Health Minister Marjorie Mitchell ordered an audit of the program after complaints about its administration.
Following the widespread rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in Canada, the Vaccine Injury Assistance Program began accepting claims in June 2021.
People who experienced a “serious and permanent injury” as a result of receiving a vaccine authorized by Health Canada after December 8, 2020 are eligible to make a claim.
The government signed a contract with Oxaro, a third-party administrator, to administer the program.
That contract expired Tuesday and a news release said the Public Health Agency of Canada will take over the designated Vaccine Effectiveness Assistance Program.
Adverse effects extremely rare: data
Applications submitted in the old program will be automatically transferred to the new one. Quebec has a separate compensation program that will continue to be administered by the province.
“PHAC will work to address the existing backlog of applications while improving the consistency and transparency of the claims process,” the news release said.
More than 105 million COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered in Canada between December 2020 and December 2023, and data shows adverse effects were extremely rare.
Health Canada reported that there were 58,712 adverse event reports at that time – representing 0.056 per cent of all shots – and 11,702 of them were considered serious – 0.011 per cent of vaccines given.
A Global News investigation last year alleged that Oxaro was unprepared to handle the influx of claims, and that of the $50.6 million the company received for the program, $33.7 million was spent on administrative costs.
In a written response to questions from a member of parliament last fall, Michel’s office said it had “asked PHAC to expedite its audit of Oxaro’s management of the program in May 2025, following allegations of mismanagement by a third-party company.”
The response also said the public health agency assigned the task Dr. Kumanan Wilson along with analyzing similar programs implemented by other countries in 2024.
That assessment found that other G7 countries – and Quebec – were managing their programs without a third-party administrator and the government said it planned to do the same on April 1, when the contract expired.
Kent Gillespie would love to be able to work full-time again, but he says his arms and back have never been the same since he had a bad reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine. It’s very rare, but there is a federal program to help people with serious and permanent injuries get a Health Canada-approved vaccine. Unfortunately, as CBC’s Sheehan Desjardins reports, Gillespie was too late to apply for help and now she has no place to go.
data from Vaccine Injury Assistance Program Shows 3,557 people had claimed as of Dec. 1, 2025.
Of those, 451 were found inadmissible and more than 3,000 claims were sent for medical review. More than 850 people were still collecting medical records in December, and the Medical Review Board had evaluated more than 1,400 claims.
The 252 people whose claims were approved have collected more than $21 million in compensation.
The program’s website does not provide wait times but says it can take a long time to collect medical records.
