Thank you, Chair. I appreciate that.
This is not what we're saying. This is what credible international institutions and organizations are saying about Canada.
I have to tell you that when I sit here and listen to what the Liberals are proposing—the flummery—I'm just astonished and shocked and appalled at what they're saying.
With respect to the overseas employment tax credit, as you know, just by way of history, this was introduced first in 1979. For all those years, from 1979 until this government, in the budget, decided to phase out, over the next four years, the OETC, we needed the overseas employment tax credit, because Canadian companies, particularly in the areas where the OETC was applicable, were not competitive. They weren't competitive because first, they were overtaxed. They couldn't meet the competitive standards set out around the world. We needed to attract the kind of labour that was necessary to attract the kind of employees we needed to these companies. They needed an incentive from government to do so.
Now we find that since our government has been in power, corporate tax rates have been lowered to 15%. We are branded around the world as one of the most competitive business and corporate environments in which to invest, in which to do business, and in which to employ. So the overseas employment tax credit is no longer necessary.
Therefore, what we'll be doing is phasing it out over the next four years. As a result, during the phase-out period, we'll be lowering the 80% factor on the first $100,000 of income to $60,000 in 2013, to $40,000 in 2014, and to $20,000 in 2015. It will then be nil for 2016 and subsequent years.
What the Liberals are proposing is that on the one hand, we need to increase corporate tax rates. On the other hand, through this amendment, which will totally decimate the overseas employment tax credit phase-out, we'll have tremendous amounts of lost income. It'll be a fiscal disaster. This is the Liberal Party economic policy. They move from one disaster to another.
The phase-out of the employment tax credit provides a reasonable transition time for taxpayers. If we stick to what the Liberals are saying, the employment tax credit may not be phased out at all, in which case, we will be forsaking some serious tax revenues for our government at the same time as the Liberals are complaining about a deficit on the federal books.
Chair, it's passing strange, I find, that the Liberals on the one hand are complaining about—
How much time do I have?