Which financial plan is funded by contributions, and not by the government through duties and taxes?

• A. Canada Pension Plan (CPP)
• B. Old Age Security (OAS)
• C. Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS)
• D. Employment Insurance (EI)

Answer: (A)

The key idea is how each plan is funded. The Canada Pension Plan operates as a contributory program: workers and their employers make mandatory payroll deductions, and those contributions go into the CPP Fund. The fund is separate from general government revenue and is invested to pay current and future benefits. Because the financing comes from specific contributions rather than from taxes collected for general government purposes, it is funded by contributions.

Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, by contrast, are financed from the government’s general revenue—tax dollars and other government funds—not from a dedicated contribution pool. Employment Insurance is funded by premiums paid by employers and employees into the EI program, but the question emphasizes funding by contributions rather than by government taxes; CPP is the clearest example of a plan funded purely by contributions into a separate fund.