Skip to content

Q&A: How Brutal Was the VISP Compensation Process?

Day 2 · 1:35:39 · Shawn Buckley · Cameron Hitchcock · Dean Allison

  • 📄 Caseworkers reversed eligibility mid-leave, delayed payments a month, and left him without EI or VISP income while training for home dialysis.
  • 💸 He cashed TFSA savings to survive; VISP later refused to process the claim and he is still waiting under VIAP.
  • ⏱️ Approval itself took roughly a year and a half to two years from first application.

Hitchcock recounts bureaucratic failures that left him unpaid during medical leave.

← Q&A: Did Doctors Link Hitchcock’s Injury to the Vaccine? | Q&A: How Does a Full-Time Worker Survive Without Income? →

Transcript

Shawn Buckley · 1:35:39

Um, how was the process with the, the program?

Cameron Hitchcock · 1:35:43

It's terrible. Um, I, I went on a medical leave to train for home hemodialysis. I was on peritoneal dialysis for most of the time until my nurse told me to go to the ER because I was getting bad. Um, I wanted to do it at home. More dialysis, healthier, it's safer, it's more freedom. Um, so I, uh, I, I contacted this— my, my caseworker and I told her this was happening. I said, I need this time off, what's the process? She told me all the process, I followed it. I sent her all the, all the documents from HR, from my doctor, everything. I get a message, an email, 2 weeks into my leave saying, oh, you can't, you're not eligible until we get a letter from your HR after you're done your leave. And then we'll process it. It takes them a month to process things. So I wasn't going to get paid for another month after I got back to work.

Cameron Hitchcock · 1:36:45

I hadn't applied for EI yet because they told me that I was going to get my 90% from VIST coming. So then I apply for EI. I call EI, they— and I say I have this pending payment from VIST coming. Because I had that discussion with EI, they put a hold on my on my EI, so I didn't get any money from, from EI, from sickness EI, or VISP the whole time I was off training. I ended up, uh, cashing in some of my TFSA to get some money because, um, I wasn't getting anything from them. They— I got, I got my EI after I got back to work, and then VISP told me in mid-March, we're just not going to process this anymore. So now I'm applying through VIAP. Public Health, and I still don't have anything for that.

Dean Allison · 1:37:33

How long was the process from start to finish? How long did it take for you to get—.

Cameron Hitchcock · 1:37:36

Which process?

Dean Allison · 1:37:37

To get approved from the time you applied?

Cameron Hitchcock · 1:37:39

About a year and a half to get on VISPP itself. A year, about a year and a half or so, maybe 2 years.

Dean Allison · 1:37:46

Well, thanks for being here and explaining all that. I think it's important to the people at home that are watching and the people that are here today listening to know what the process is for each individual case and how hard it is for the injured people to get the, the help they need.

Shawn Buckley · 1:38:02

Thank you.

Dean Allison · 1:38:04

And I just want to add to that, Cameron, and once again, thanks for being here.