Vaccine injury compensation fund gets additional $36M from feds
Global News
The federal government has added $36.4 million to a program designed to support people who have been seriously injured or killed by vaccines since the end of 2020.
The federal government has added $36.4 million to a program designed to support people who have been seriously injured or killed by vaccines since the end of 2020.
The program was announced shortly after COVID-19 shots first became available to the public, and provides financial compensation to people who were adversely affected by Health Canada-approved vaccines.
The Liberals earmarked $75 million for the first five years of the program. To date, a private firm called OXARO has received $56.2 million from Ottawa to run the program and pay out valid claims that originate outside of Quebec.
As of December, the firm has paid $11.2 million in compensation.
Quebec has had its own vaccine injury compensation program since 1985, and received $7.75 million when the federal program launched.
The Liberal government set aside another $36 million for OXARO and Quebec to cover the next two years of the program as part of the federal budget tabled in the House of Commons last week.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) says it contracted the work to OXARO to ensure the impartiality of the claims process.
“OXARO operates independently and at arm’s length from PHAC,” a spokesperson for the department said in a statement.
