SAINT JOHN, New Brunswick – The hyped launch is over. The new logo and slogan released. Now, the real challenge begins.

That challenge is to stay focused on the seven priorities identified in the region’s much-anticipated Growth Strategy and to work together to make them happen.

As Derek Oland of Moosehead Breweries put it: “They’ve shown us the sizzle, and now it’s time for the steak.”

It’s not going to be easy given the fact that the city doesn’t have much money, that some of the initiatives will require the help of other levels of government, and that, in the past, there have been instances of bickering between Saint John and some of the outlying communities.

It’s not going to happen quickly either.

Previous efforts to create goals for Saint John have ended up collecting dust on a shelf.

But politicians and community leaders alike say they are committed to seeing this through.

“Some of the projects are going to be huge, especially on the waterfront, but it’s going to happen,” Mayor Shirley McAlary told reporters after the Friday morning launch at Harbour Station, which an estimated 2,500 people attended.

“We’re not going to have everything overnight, but Harbour Passage showed we can deliver,” said John Wallace, president of the Waterfront Development Partnership. “Sure, each initiative does have a financial cost but I believe they can be achieved.”

Dr. Robert MacKinnon, dean of arts at the University of New Brunswick Saint John campus, will be watching. He will head an accountability committee made up of one councilor from each of the five municipalities involved – Saint John, Rothesay, Quispamsis, Grand Bay-Westfield and St. Martins.

The committee, which will operate at arm’s length from Enterprise Saint John, will meet every few months over the next few years to assess the region’s progress on the report’s seven priorities, said MacKinnon.

Those priorities include: waterfront, communication, waterways, building from within, entrepreneurial activity, new investment and diversity. “It’s one thing to say we’d like to promote immigration, for example, it’s another to makes sure we’ve got the mechanisms in place to ensure that will happen,” said MacKinnon.

The committee will report regularly to Enterprise Saint John, the five municipal councils, and the public at large.

Enterprise Saint John has assembled about $750,000 to implement the growth strategy to attract new businesses and residents to the area. The money was committed, roughly split three ways, by the five municipalities, the provincial government, and Ottawa. About two-thirds of the money is left. It will be used to buy advertising and support implementation of the strategy in other ways.

Helping the advertising will be the city’s new logo and slogan, created by Pigeon Branding and Design of Oakville, Ontario.

The new slogan is: Explore our Past, Discover your Future.

Saint John mayoralty hopeful Derek Chase believes the plan is just the rejuvenation the region needs. “I’m willing to bet in the next 10 years you won’t be able to recognize the place.”