Think about how much more unfair it would have been to Al's surviving spouse if he died one day before he retired and his spouse was a max CPP contributor for her work life.  His spouse would receive the $2500 death benefit.  Then most of Al's max contributions including the additional $18000 would remain in the CPP investment pool.

This is another big negative of the CPP - the Death benefit should be much more !

Think how much better off Al's spouse would have been if all of his contributions had been personally invested by Al over his work life and this capital was available to his spouse if he had died 1 day before he retired.