You should be scared, in Canada the government pushed the retirement age from 65 to 67 so that's 2 years more of working and 2 more years before you have access to your own cash.
Canada's RRSPs are actually a much better system. They are straight up tax deferral. You can put money into your RRSP at any age up to 70 so long as you have contribution room (ie: you're employed). Later, if you wind up unemployed and therefore in a lower tax bracket than when you put money in, you can take the money out.
If the Canadian government instituted some sort of tax on RRSPs, they wouldn't be able to act fast enough to prevent people from massively draining their RRSPs before new rules took effect.
In the US, you have to wait until you are 59.5, or you begin collecting periodic payments (ie: as if it were a pension), or you pay a 10% penalty.