I'm sorry. To clarify, it's not “real money” in the sense that it is cash in a bank account that could be spent on something. It certainly represents real premiums paid by employers and employees, but those premium revenues have flowed to the CRF in each year they were paid, as the legislation requires.
The EI account keeps track of those premium revenues and program expenditures. It's a running total of the program since I think the early 1980s, I'm not sure—possibly 1973.