APP Myth 14

APP Fact 3

The exact process that a province must follow in order to leave the Canada Pension Plan and create its own provincial pension plan is included in the law that created the Canada Pension Plant itself - the Canada Pension Plan Act.

Provinces have this right to leave because the Constitution of Canada protects the provinces' right to implement their own pension systems as a matter of provincial jurisdiction, and the Canada Pension Plan was only created in the first place when the provinces voluntarily agreed to let the federal government implement a federal pension system.

As a condition of joining, Ontario insisted on a rule that would allow provinces to leave the scheme in the future, and be compensated for the funds they would have had in a provincial scheme had they never joined in the first place.

Quebec opted not to join in on this federal pension system right from the start, despite the existence of this rule, and while this means that it’s true that Quebec technically never “left” the Canada Pension Plan, there’s no dispute that they would have been entitled to do so had they ever joined in the first place.