Health Committee on Feb. 5th, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I think the witnesses have heard you. They accept that they should have answers for this. If they don't, I cannot control that, sir. The point is made and well noted. Thank you.

Now I'll go to Mr. Bailey for five minutes, please.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

I'd like to go back to the sealed vaccine reports.

I understand that it may take time to pull millions of pages together. Given the government's bungling of the vaccine injury support program, which saw two-thirds of the $50 million go to consultants rather than injured Canadians, I think it's fair to approach the government with skepticism on this matter.

My question is, what was the rescoping of this request? When can the requesters expect to have their access to information request answered? I would like a simple answer please. Is it one year, two years or...?

[Nancy Hamzawi]

My understanding is that it's one year.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Excellent.

How many Canadians have reported vaccine injuries since the VISP began?

[Nancy Hamzawi]

In terms of the VISP specifically, as of June 1, which is what is in the public record, 3,317 claims have been submitted.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

As of December 1, 2025, about $18 million have been paid out to claimants. How many claimants have received compensation from this $18 million?

[Nancy Hamzawi]

The $18 million is for June 1, not December 1. There is new data for December 1. My understanding is that the third party provider will be releasing data shortly.

In fact, the amount paid to claimants as of December 1 is $21,474,722.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

How many individuals are still waiting to receive their due compensation from the government?

[Nancy Hamzawi]

I will stick to the December 1 data. From the December 1, 2025, data, 3,557 claims were received. Of those 3,557 claims, 2,061 are pending review.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Your website says there are 2,700 Canadians at some stage of the review process.

[Nancy Hamzawi]

There are 2,061 claims pending review. There are 1,433 that have been reviewed by the medical review board. Rejected by the medical review board were 1,181.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Excellent.

What is the average time that individuals wait to have their claims processed?

[Nancy Hamzawi]

It is a broad range, depending on the complexity. My understanding is that it's 12 to 24 months. I understand that some of them are for extended periods of time, which is very important and frustrating.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

This has not improved since Oxaro—the boondoggle—was exposed to the media and your department took it back over. It's still taking that long.

[Nancy Hamzawi]

Madam Chair, thank you very much for this question. I think it's an important clarification.

To clarify, the Public Health Agency of Canada has not yet taken over administration of the program. This will take place on April 1.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

It will take place on April 1. Is Oxaro still running this program?

[Nancy Hamzawi]

At this time, yes, it is.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Oh, my goodness—I'm shocked. Okay. Well, that is something.

I'm going to switch over to the connected care bill, Bill S-5. Is this the same as CONNECT, which has been developed in the United States?

[Shalene Curtis-Micallef]

The legislation that was tabled yesterday is a facilitative piece of legislation; it is not the product.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

It's not. Okay.

[Shalene Curtis-Micallef]

It is not a product. It is a framework that allows the development of regulations and consultations with provinces, territories and standards agencies.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Thank you. That's excellent.

One of my concerns about this is the burden it places on physicians. Currently, we have a shortage of physicians. Alberta has just gone through this MR restructuring process, and they spent over $1 billion on it.

I really hope the government takes the time to learn about some of the struggles that Alberta went through in implementing this over the last 15 years, because this system of connecting individuals—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have forty-five seconds.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

—does not happen overnight. It is a very long process. One thing they learned in Alberta was that a lot of the hospitals didn't have Internet service for it to even work.

I bring that to your attention, and I look forward to learning more about it.

I have one last question. I understand you said that 5,000 spots were going to be made available for international medical graduates. Is that correct, yes or no?

[Jocelyne Voisin]

I don't know about the 5,000 spots you're talking about. We did talk about budget 2024 funding from Health Canada that is supporting 120 new training spots.