Canada Takes Control of Vaccine Injury Compensation

0:00It's March 31st. Welcome in. This is Vancouver News today, where local news meets AI. Canada's federal government just took full control of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, pulling it back from a private firm after years of headaches. Launch in December 2020, alongside COVID shots, it covers serious, rare injuries from any approved vaccine, no fault needed. Out of $50.6 million in taxpayer cash, though, two-thirds went to admin costs, with only $16.9 million reaching injured. Folks? The old setup with OXARO drew tons of complaints. Long waits of 12 to 24 months for assessments, rejections by Doc's claimants never met, and thousands still in limbo. By December 1st, 2025, they logged 3557 claims since mid-2021. The contract ended March 31st this year, sparked by an investigation and a government audit. Claimants, families, and even MPs flooded officials with negative feedback, frustrated by the runaround.

1:04Health Minister Marjorie Michelle straight-up said they weren't happy with OXARO's work, calling for case-by-case reviews where payouts can hit four. $193,000 max. Now, it's the Vaccine Impact Assistance Program, or VIA-P, run directly by the Public Health Agency of Canada to tackle the backlog, boost transparency, and, at a real-time online portal for status checks and file uploads, no reapplying needed. Over 650 claimants joined a virtual session this week on the changes. Vaccines saved countless lives here, with over 105 million doses given, and adverse events at just 0.056% of shots. Canada is catching up to other G7 nations with this in-house fix, aiming for fair support while keeping the focus on those rare, but real impacts.