The four person Queens County Transition Committee has been unveiled in Liverpool.

Their goal is to develop a new plan to grow business opportunities in Queens County now that the Bowater Mersey Mill has been closed.

The committee includes the executive director of the Lunenburg Queens Regional Development Agency, Andrew Button, and the CAO for the Region of Queens Municipality, Kathleen Rafuse. Also on the committee are Barry Tomalin, the president of the South Queens Chamber of Commerce, and Blair Douglas, the former president and owner of N.F. Douglas Lumber Ltd.

The members bring a wide range of experience in business, finance, municipal governance and the forestry sector.

Transition adviser Ron Smith says the wheels are already in motion to put services in place for people’s immediate needs.

“Over the next few days you’ll be hearing about that and that’s all going to be critical in the short term until things have settled down and people can find their feet again,” he explains, adding he hopes the committee will have some sort of vision by the fall.

Smith stresses any plan has to look five or ten years down the road and not just at the immediate future.

“We’re going to do our best to pull it together into some plans and initiates that we can lay before people who can be part of that and hopefully line up the required assistance and resources,” he says.

Smith explains the committee will meet with anyone in the community who wants to give input as well as businesses and politicians, but when it’s all said and done, even he admits even he’s not sure what they’ll accomplish.

“I know that we’ve got myself and people involved who are going to do their best to accomplish whatever we can that should be accomplished and we’re going find that out,” he promises. “We’re going to do our very best.”

There’s some concern that a large number of people may pick up and head west now that the Bowater Mersey Mill is closed and MLA Vicki Conrad admits trying to keep people in Liverpool may be a challenge.

“It will probably be a very difficult task,” she says. “We would like to think that people won’t need to make that choice right away, but realistically, probably some of those families will need to make that choice and we already know some families have been moving westward.”

There is also a lot of talk around town that Irving may be interested in the property, but Conrad cautioned against rumors.