The federal government has stepped in to run its own vaccine injury compensation program after years of complaints about the third-party administrator handling claims, with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) officially taking over operations on April 1, 2026.
The program, now rebranded as the Vaccine Impact Assistance Program (VIAP), replaces what was previously known as the Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP). It continues to offer financial support to Canadians who suffered serious and permanent injuries from Health Canada-authorized vaccines administered after December 8, 2020. Quebec remains outside the federal umbrella, maintaining its own provincial compensation mechanism.
At the heart of the transition is the troubled tenure of Oxaro, the third-party firm the federal government contracted in 2021 to manage VISP. When Oxaro’s contract expired on March 31, the government chose not to renew it a decision that followed mounting public criticism of the firm’s performance.
A 2025 investigation by Global News revealed a striking financial picture: of the $50.6 million Oxaro received to run the program, $33.7 million went toward administrative costs alone. That figure drew sharp scrutiny from both program applicants and opposition politicians.
The original projections for claim volumes were also wildly off the mark. Oxaro and PHAC had initially anticipated roughly 40 claims per year, later revising that estimate to as many as 400 annually. In reality, more than 3,317 applications had been filed as of June 2025 a volume that critics say the administrator was simply not built to handle.
Canadians who came forward publicly painted a grim picture of their experience navigating the system. Complaints included long delays in receiving decisions, poor communication from caseworkers, a high turnover rate among program staff, and payouts that many felt did not adequately reflect the severity of their injuries.
As of June 1, 2025 the most recent figures available 3,317 Canadians had submitted claims to VISP. Of those, 2,699 were deemed admissible for review, while 352 were rejected outright and 266 remained pending an eligibility determination. Only 234 claims had been approved and cleared for payment. A further 420 Canadians had launched appeals after their cases were turned down.
The VISP website no longer displays updated statistics, noting that the federal government has assumed control of the program.
For Canadians already caught up in the process, PHAC has offered some reassurance. Those who applied under VISP and have not yet received a decision will not be required to start over their files will carry forward and be assessed under the new VIAP framework. Similarly, anyone already receiving financial support through VISP will continue to receive payments without interruption.
PHAC says its immediate priority will be clearing the existing backlog while making the claims process more consistent and transparent. The agency has said it intends to draw on lessons from the program’s first iteration, along with best practices from Quebec’s provincial model and comparable programs run by Canada’s G7 partners.
The dysfunction surrounding VISP did not escape the attention of Parliament. Conservative MPs on the House of Commons health committee pushed for a special summer meeting in July 2025 to scrutinize the program’s operations, but the effort failed to gain traction. Conservative MP Dan Mazier later alleged that the Liberal government had actively blocked the committee from conducting a proper investigation into VISP an accusation that added another layer of controversy to an already contentious file.
Canada’s vaccine injury compensation program was born out of necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic, created to provide recourse for the rare cases where immunization led to serious harm. According to Health Canada data last updated in January 2024 there were 11,702 adverse event reports following COVID-19 immunization classified as serious, alongside an additional 47,010 categorized as non-serious.
Whether PHAC’s direct stewardship of the program will translate into faster, fairer outcomes for injured Canadians remains to be seen. What is clear is that the government now owns the responsibility entirely and with thousands of claims still unresolved, the pressure to deliver is considerable.
