Its a seperate fund that you will get back, and its necessary. There is a large segement if irresponsible people in Canada and if they did not take it in advance, they would just spend it and Canada would have to pay via social programs anyway. As for people who are responisble? some of them will fail as well and still get helped by their past savings. If it did not exist there would be no employer matching amount so you can thank the govt for getting you that extra $ from your employer,No? Well it sure wasn't in my pocket.
Call it whatever you want, I was contributing to government's coffers.