What is the CPP anyway? And why is Alberta leaving it different from Quebec?

The government of Alberta's plan to potentially create its own retirement plan and pull out of the Canada Pension Plan has prompted questions, concerns and confusion from any part of Canada that includes members of the existing CPP.

At CBC News, readers, listeners and viewers have sent in or commented asking about what's proposed and what's to come. Here's some of what you wanted to know.

The Canada Pension Plan began in the late 1960s, as a nationwide pension scheme that took contributions from workers' paycheques to provide pensions upon retirement.

Both employers and employees have been required by law to contribute to the CPP, except in Quebec where a separate QPP — the Quebec Pension Plan — was set up concurrently with CPP.

Combined, employees and employers pay 11.4 per cent of a worker's wages into CPP, based on annual income between $3,500 and $64,900. Retirees can receive a pension starting as early as age 60.

"You all contribute with the understanding that when it comes your time to retire, you can expect your own steady stream of income where the risks are being managed directly by the plan," explained Sebastien Betermier, associate professor of finance at McGill University and Executive Director of the International Centre for Pension Management.

For CPP members, those risks have been managed by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), an entity created om 1997 that is independent of the Government of Canada.

The CPPIB manages $575 billion dollars. It's had a net return of nearly 10 per cent over the last decade, according to its most recent annual report and has been ranked one of the top managed pension funds in the world.

CPP funds are "kept separate from government funds" and neither provincial nor federal governments can access the money in the Canada Pension Plan.

Betermier said his personal opinion is that the CPPIB would not want to have to sell off investments to be able to pay out Alberta for a theoretical departure.

"The best way to generate efficiency as an asset manager is to invest over the long term....  What you do not want is a situation where from one year to the next, you're losing a big chunk of your capital because that's going to require you to sell quite a few of the assets," he said.

The federal act that created the Canada Pension Plan allows provinces to leave.

So, first of all, other provinces can have their own pension plans. In fact, any province that is not part of CPP must offer a comparable pension plan.

Alberta is permitted to leave if it chooses, by giving three years written notice.