The number of years people contribute to the plan is used to calculate how much they will be entitled to when they reach retirement age . When calculating benefits , the current CPP lets Canadians leave out the years they spent taking care of their young children , so those periods where no , or low , contributions were made , do not drag down the value of a person ' s government pension . There is a similar provision in place for Canadians who rely on disability benefits . The expanded portion of the plan will not allow people to exclude childrearing years or time spent on disability , which means , for people in those situations , the increased benefits will not be as much of a boost to their retirement incomes as they might have hoped . When I see a complaint related to sex or gender , I ' m immediately skeptical given today ' s political climate . But this seems like a legitimate issue .