Mr. Speaker, the Pan-Canadian Vaccine Injury Support Program, or VISP, provides financial support to people in Canada in the rare event that they experience a serious and permanent injury as a result of receiving a Health Canada authorized vaccine, administered in Canada, on or after December 8, 2020. The program also provides death benefits and support for funeral expenses in the rare case of a death as a result of receiving a Health Canada authorized vaccine.
The Pan-Canadian VISP was launched on June 1, 2021, and is being administered independently by OXARO, formerly known as Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Consulting Inc., with funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada, or PHAC. This program is available for people who were vaccinated in all provinces except Quebec. PHAC is not involved in individual cases, including in the determination of decisions regarding causality or compensation.
As the independent administrator, OXARO operates at arm’s length from PHAC and oversees all aspects of claims intake and assessment. OXARO is responsible for providing periodic public reporting on program statistics. Public reporting began on December 1, 2021, and data on the pan-Canadian VISP is updated twice a year. Latest public reporting can be found at https://vaccineinjurysupport.ca/en/program-statistics. The latest reporting shows the program statistics as of December 1, 2023. The next update will be available in June 2024.
The province of Quebec continues to administer its longstanding Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, or VICP, for people vaccinated in that province, with federal funding. Information on Quebec’s VICP, including program statistics as of March 31, 2023, can be found at https://www.quebec.ca/en/health/advice-and-prevention/vaccination/vaccine-injury-compensation-program#c3895.
In response to questions (a), (b), (e), (f), and (k), as of OXARO’s last public report on December 1, 2023, OXARO had received 2233 claims; approved 138 claims by Medical Review Board; received 102 claims of appeals; approved 6 appeals; and paid $11.236 million in financial support to eligible claimants.
As of Quebec’s last public report on March 1, 2023, since 1988, Quebec had received 410 claims; approved 56 claims; received 92 claims of appeals; approved 9 appeals; and paid $9.397 million in financial support to eligible claimants.
These program statistics, including the claims received, claims approved and appeals, can also be found on the OXARO website. Information on Quebec’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, for those vaccinated in Quebec, can be found on the Quebec provincial website.
In response to questions and sub-questions (a) broken down by age group, (b) broken down by age group, (c) what have been the diagnoses and their frequencies, broken down by age group, date approved, and the corresponding COVID-19 vaccines that were administered, (d), (g), (h), (i) and (j), the implementation model used by the Government of Canada, a contribution agreement subject to the Policy on Transfer Payments, means that OXARO’s work occurs independently and at arm’s length from PHAC. As a result, PHAC does not request nor receive any information regarding individual claims received by OXARO nor data related to demographics, types of vaccines, or the nature of vaccine injuries.
In response to questions (l), (m) and (n),with regards to the physicians conducting the medical board reviews and assessment process followed, OXARO has advised PHAC that they ensure the medical experts hold both a valid license with their respective College of Physicians and a valid Canadian Medical Protective Association membership across Canada. Depending on the nature of the injury, the team of medical experts assembled to review a claim can include specialists, such as cardiologists and neurologists. This is done to provide a comprehensive analysis of each claim. Medical review boards use a causality assessment process developed by OXARO that is based on accepted industry practices and the World Health Organization’s guidance on the causality assessment of an adverse event following immunization.