A nurse administers a COVID-19 vaccine at a pop-up clinic at the Masjid Darus Salaam in the Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood in Toronto on Sunday, April 11, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

By The Canadian Press

Federal government taking over vaccine injury compensation, aims to address backlog

Mar 31, 2026 | 11:07 AM

OTTAWA — The federal public health agency is taking over administration of a program that compensates people who have been injured by vaccines, months after Health Minister Marjorie Michel ordered an audit of the program following complaints about its administration.

The vaccine injury support program began accepting claims in June 2021, after the widespread rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in Canada.

People who experienced a “serious and permanent injury” as a result of receiving a vaccine authorized by Health Canada after Dec. 8, 2020, are eligible to make a claim.

The government signed a contract with a third-party administrator, Oxaro, to administer the program.

That contract expired on Tuesday and a news release said the Public Health Agency of Canada will take over the renamed vaccine impact assistance program.

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Applications submitted to the old program will transfer to the new one automatically. Quebec has a separate compensation program that will continue to be administered by the province.

“PHAC will be working to address the existing backlog of applications, while improving the consistency and transparency of the claims process,” the news release said.

More than 105 million COVID-19 vaccine doses were given out in Canada between December 2020 and December 2023, and data shows adverse effects were extremely rare.

Health Canada reported that 58,712 adverse event reports were made in that time — representing 0.056 per cent of all shots — and that 11,702 of those were considered serious — 0.011 per cent of vaccines given out.

An investigation by Global News last year alleged Oxaro was unprepared to handle the influx of claims, and that $33.7 million of the $50.6 million the company received for the program had been spent on administrative costs.

In a written response to questions from a member of Parliament last fall, Michel’s office said she asked PHAC to accelerate an audit of Oxaro’s management of the program in May 2025, “following allegations of mismanagement by the third-party company.”

The response also noted that the public health agency tasked Dr. Kumanan Wilson with analyzing similar programs put in place by other countries in 2024.

That evaluation found that other G7 countries — and Quebec — were managing their programs without a third-party administrator and the government said it was planning to do the same as of April 1, when the contract expired.

Data from the vaccine injury support program shows 3,557 people made a claim as of Dec. 1, 2025.

Of those, 451 were found inadmissible and just over 3,000 claims were sent for a medical review. More than 850 people were still collecting medical records in December, and the medical review board had assessed just over 1,400 claims.

The 252 people whose claims were approved have collected more than $21 million in compensation.

The program’s website does not provide wait times but says collecting medical records can take a significant amount of time.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 31, 2026.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press