Abbysmum said "But I'm reasonably sure they're not allowed to use CPP funds to "run government", but are basically held in trust and invested.
However, return rates are probably pretty low as a significant portion would have to be in fairly safe investment vehicles, so it's possible the fund itself doesn't keep pace with inflation.
From the link provided above, it does state, "assets held in the CPP fund are by themselves insufficient to pay for all future benefits accrued to date but sufficient to prevent contributions from rising any further." There is always a need to balance between what's being paid vs. what's being paid out, to ensure everyone who pays has access to it in the future.
But yes, it's hard to live on just CPP. That's why there's actually a total of 4 (5, if you count TFSAs) ways to fund retirement, of which CPP is only one. But because it's a public fund, it's shared and not yours uniquely. "
Rate of return is actually very good. Averaging 10.4% over the last 10 years. It has very good controls and regulations keeping it separate from politicians. Scares the hell out of me that Kenny wants to split off Alberta's "portion" and run it separately.
CPP is Indexed to Inflation
The rate increase is the percentage change from one 12-month period to the previous 12-month period. CPP payments were increased by 2.3 percent in 2019, based on the average CPI from November 2017 to October 2018, divided by the average CPI from November 2016 to October 2017.