Certainly anything that can help businesses be more competitive is welcome and yes, we would hope that would happen in the next budget. Our businesses cannot continue to operate at a higher tax threshold than they're paying in other jurisdictions. Here in New Brunswick, we're finding it even more challenging because of our aging demographic since we have fewer people to purchase those businesses. We've talked about business transition. We need a tax situation that makes them more competitive.
We learned last week that 75% of businesses in Canada will transition. The owners of 75% of small and medium-sized enterprises will retire within the next 10 years. That's a huge challenge that our business community must face. We understand that fewer than half of those businesses have a transition plan in place, and fewer than 10% of those businesses, if they do have some type of a plan, have it in writing. This is a big challenge that we're facing across the country, but particularly here in our region, as we have a greater aging population here than elsewhere.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, at a recent conference in Regina, passed a resolution to support this issue of the import of diafiltered milk product. That's something that the business community across the country has supported in the agricultural field. I'm not sure if you were aware of that, but I wanted to share that with you.