The feds have spent an extra $17.6 million on relaunching their Vaccine Impact Assistance Program (VIAP) after giving a consulting company, which failed to pay claimants, over $30 million.Announced Tuesday, the Vaccine Impact Assistance Program (VIAP) will provide payments for those who received Health Canada-approved vaccines and suffered injuries that are serious and irremediable.The program will begin Wednesday.This includes payments for income replacement, uncovered medical expenses, and for dependents of someone who died from a vaccination.The program was originally called the Vaccine Injury Support Program, and began accepting claims in June 2021, and was administered through Oxaro, a consulting service..Tuesday is the last day Oxaro will be in charge of the program.For the past five years, Oxaro received $50.6 million from the feds, while spending $33.7 million on administration costs.Reported by Global News, only $16.9 million of the money actually went towards those injured. Oxara and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) claim they underestimated how many claims the program would receive — predicting 40 a year, and receiving up to 400 valid claims annually.Some applicants who were approved have previously stated they still have yet to receive the money, with VIAP agents being unreachable..With some payments still not being received, the feds said: "[Oxaro] does have until the end of day today.""We do know that there are a few claimants that Oxaro was not able to pay in March, and they are going to be sending that information to us."They claim they will work with claimants through April to get them their money.The program had been originally approved for $75 million for the "the administration under the third party," with $9 million "of core funding for the ongoing for VIAP as of April 1.".In total, this amounts to over $100 million spent since 2021.All applications submitted from the old program will be transferred to the new VIAP.
