Over One-Third of Funding for Vaccine Injury Program Spent on Administrative Costs

A pharmacist prepares a dose behind a counter lined with vials of COVID-19 vaccines in Toronto on June 18, 2021. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

More than one-third of the federal funding allocated for the now-defunct Vaccine Injury Support Program was spent on administrative costs, according to newly released government documents.

When the Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP) was launched in June 2021, $111.4 million was allocated for its first five years of operation, according to Health Canada’s April 13 response to an inquiry from Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis. Of the $67.6 million disbursed to date, $21.7 million has been paid out to claimants.

Lewis’s order paper question from May 26, 2025, had asked how much of the program’s total funding was spent on administration “as compared to direct compensation to claimants.”

The Public Health Agency of Canada recently took over the administration of VISP on April 1, 2026, rebranded as the Vaccine Impact Assistance Program (VIAP). The program will continue providing financial assistance to Canadians who experienced a “serious and permanent injury” from a Health Canada-authorized vaccine administered after Dec. 8, 2020.

PHAC said on March 31 that its focus will be on addressing the existing backlog of applicants while improving the consistency and transparency of the claims process. The agency also said it would draw from lessons learned from the previous iteration of the program, “as well as best practices from similar programs administered by Quebec and G7 partners.”

Third-party administrator Oxaro had partnered with the federal government to run VISP in 2021, but faced criticism for its management of the program, including that it was unequipped to handle the volume of claims.

A 2025 investigation by Global News found that $33.7 million of the $50.6 million that Oxaro received for VISP had been spent on administrative costs. While PHAC and Oxaro had projected there would be around 40 claims per year and then up to 400 valid claims annually, over 3,317 applications were filed.

An Epoch Times investigation in 2024 found that several Canadians faced difficulties with the program, including long wait times, poor communication, a high turnover rate for case workers, and insufficient payouts for injuries.

A VISP spokesperson previously told The Epoch Times in a statement that the timelines for deciding the eligibility of vaccine-injured Canadians was determined by the complexity of the claim, and said that all claims were verified by medical experts.

Conservative MPs on the House of Commons health committee called for a special summer meeting to review VISP in July 2025, but were not successful. Conservative MP Dan Mazier later accused the Liberals of blocking the committee from investigating VISP.