Tory MPs, health group call for investigation and overhaul of vaccine support program
Four Conservative MPs are calling for a Commons committee investigation into the Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP), and a pivotal non-profit health foundation says the effort needs an urgent overhaul.
Led by Dan Mazier, the Conservative health critic and deputy chairman of the Commons Health Committee, the group requested in a letter that Liberal MP and committee chairperson Hedy Fry convene for an emergency hearing. Fry did not respond to their request.
“This is more than mismanagement,” their letter read. “It appears to be a blatant misuse of tax dollars. The Liberals handed out tens of millions of dollars to high priced consultants while the very Canadians this program was intended to help have been neglected.”
The other Conservatives who signed the letter included Kitchener-area MP Dr. Matt Strauss, South Okanagan MP Helena Konanz, and Red Deer MP Burton Bailey.
A political aide to Hedy Fry said she was unavailable for an interview.
“Dr. Fry is spending time with her family currently where there are connectivity issues and unreliable reception. I’ve been having a hard time reaching her. As such, it seems she is not available to discuss,” Fry’s political staffer replied in an email.
The criticisms emerged this week in the wake of a five-month Global News investigation into the Liberal government’s 2020 announcement it would create VISP and the Public Health Agency of Canada’s decision to outsource its administration to the Ottawa consulting firm, Oxaro Inc., in 2021.
Oxaro did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
The five-month Global News investigation that prompted the outcry revealed that:
- Oxaro has received $50.6 million in taxpayer money. $33.7 million has been spent on administrative costs, while injured Canadians received $16.9 million. Updated Health Canada figures released Thursday show the company has now received $54.1 million and spent $36.3 million on administration costs, with $18.1 million paid to injured Canadians
- PHAC and Oxaro underestimated the number of injury claims VISP would get, initially predicting 40 per year and then up to 400 valid claims annually. More than 3,317 applications have been filed — of those, more than 1,738 people await decisions on their claims
- Some injured applicants say they face a revolving door of unreachable VISP case managers and require online fundraising campaigns to survive. Others said their applications were unfairly rejected by doctors they’ve never spoken to or met.
In previous emails sent to Global News, Oxaro has said that the program processes, procedures and staffing (of VISP) were adapted to face the challenge of receiving substantially more applications than originally planned.
“Oxaro and PHAC have been collaborating closely to evaluate how the program can remain agile to handle the workload on hand while respecting budget constraints,” it added.
Oxaro also said that its monthly invoices to the government include documents and details, which in turn PHAC reviews and approves prior to payment.
In response to questions from Global News, Health Canada spokesperson Mark Johnson replied in an email that PHAC, “continuously conducts analyses of the program to identify both shortfalls as well as opportunities to better support people in Canada who have experienced a serious and permanent injury following vaccination.”
The Global News investigation also found that despite decades of calls for a vaccine injury support program, the federal government cobbled it together during the pandemic and underestimated the number of claims it would receive.
Darryl Bedford, president of the GBS-CIDP Foundation of Canada (GBS), is calling for an overhaul of the four-year old program, demanding it improve the speed of decision-making and support for the vaccine injured.
“We’re very concerned. And we think that there really needs to be a close look or overhaul of this,” said Bedford, who runs the national registered charity that supports people with neurological disorders such as GBS.
“It doesn’t feel like it’s working to us.”
Bedford said liaison people and volunteers on the ground have told him that they don’t feel VISP is “consistent enough.” Several people who received COVID-19 vaccines developed serious adverse reactions that included GBS, which can cause paralysis, throwing their lives into crisis, according to a Health Canada database that reported adverse reaction events of special interest.
Global News uncovered allegations that Oxaro was unequipped to deliver fully on the program’s mission, questions about why the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) chose this company over others, and internal documents that suggested poor planning from the start.
Former Oxaro workers described a workplace that lacked the gravitas of a program meant to assist the seriously injured and chronically ill: office drinking, ping pong, slushies and Netflix streaming at desks.
Bedford said those vaccine-injured people need help and rapid support.
“When you experience a sudden tragedy that rips your life apart, you need support within days or weeks. To have to wait months or years for a decision on financial help from the VISP is completely unacceptable,” he said.
“It doesn’t feel like it’s (VISP is) responsive enough,” he added. “It doesn’t feel like the primary goal is support.”
“It feels like the majority of the money is going to the (program) administration, and it doesn’t feel like there’s an organized process for getting the information, making a decision and getting the money out the door,” Bedford added.
Bedford revealed that members of the GBS Foundation were surprised and concerned when the Liberal government decided to outsource the program to Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Consulting Inc., now named Oxaro Inc.
“We were concerned internally when Oxaro or the subsidiary of Grant Thornton was named because there are public and private entities that have experience processing claims. And these are organizations that Canadians would know and have established processes for managing cases and making decisions on cases,” Bedford added.
“It was a surprise to us because, you know, there are household names that you could think of that process health benefit claims.”
Global News reported that one of the unsuccessful bidders was Green Shield Canada, a national health-claims benefit manager with more than 60 years in the business.
In its proposal to the government, Oxaro (at the time called RCGT Consulting Inc.), noted that its prior claims experience involved processing health insurance claims between 2012 and 2015 for a small regional insurer that became insolvent and entered a liquidation. It also runs a much smaller program for the government that hands out grants to the families of dead first reponders.
PHAC said that a six-person committee that reviewed proposals from four companies “unanimously” picked RCGT Consulting, over Green Shield and three companies.
PHAC says it is reviewing Oxaro’s five-year arrangement to administer VISP, which is up for renewal next year. A compliance audit was also launched last month after Global News started asking questions about Oxaro’s management of claims.
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