ROMA reflections: Mayor Gervais and Councillor Kallioinen at recent municipal conference

Published By: Mid North Monitor
Author: Aidan Kallioinen
Feb. 5, 2026

Fresh from the con­fer­ence floor, Espan­ola's muni­cipal rep­res­ent­at­ives are bring­ing home new ideas, new per­spect­ives, and a new sense of the chal­lenges facing the rural com­munity. Here are their thoughts on why these con­fer­ences mat­ter, and some of their takeaways.

Mayor Ger­vais:
Del­eg­a­tions at these con­fer­ences are very import­ant for our com­munity. It provides us the oppor­tun­ity to meet with min­is­ters, advoc­ate for grant fund­ing, and estab­lish import­ant work­ing rela­tion­ships with the pro­vin­cial gov­ern­ment.

A good example of this is our work with Min­is­ter Pirie and build­ing a solid rela­tion­ship regard­ing the pulp and paper mill here in Espan­ola. Our del­eg­a­tions with the Man­it­oulin-Sud­bury Dis­trict Ser­vices Board are also essen­tial for dis­cuss­ing employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies, hous­ing and social assist­ance for our region.

Work­shops at these con­fer­ences provide per­spect­ives from all walks of life. I atten­ded two this year. This year had a great plen­ary pro­gram. Journ­al­ist Chantal Hebert was fas­cin­at­ing to hear from. She is very well-versed on national polit­ics. We were also treated to two min­is­ters' for­ums this year, which are much like ques­tion peri­ods. This is a very import­ant oppor­tun­ity to ask ques­tions dir­ectly to min­is­ters them­selves. Inter­ac­tion like this gives us dif­fer­ent ideas. Ideas we can take back to Espan­ola and apply here.

Coun­cil­lor Kal­lioinen:
The chal­lenges we face as a com­munity are, for the most part, not unique to our muni­cip­al­ity. Every com­munity exper­i­ences its own chal­lenges—and has solu­tions to address them. That's where learn­ing from oth­ers becomes import­ant. We have the oppor­tun­ity to con­nect with thou­sands of rep­res­ent­at­ives, staff, and organ­iz­a­tions, all of whom are prob­lem-solv­ers in their own com­munit­ies. The strength of these con­fer­ences is in net­work­ing and speak­ing to oth­ers. As mayor and coun­cil, we're always learn­ing, and that learn­ing makes us bet­ter rep­res­ent­at­ives in Espan­ola as we apply what we've learned to our role. That's where these con­fer­ences are par­tic­u­larly valu­able.

Our rela­tion­ship-build­ing with all levels of gov­ern­ment is key to secur­ing grant fund­ing, and high­light­ing the emer­ging oppor­tun­it­ies our com­munity has. Muni­cip­al­it­ies are creatures of the province; our record hous­ing growth, advocacy work, and con­tin­ued engage­ment on the cur­rent BMI pulp and paper mill site would not be pos­sible without build­ing strong con­nec­tions with the pro­vin­cial gov­ern­ment.

Work­shops are also a key part of the rela­tion­ship-build­ing and learn­ing pro­cess. These con­fer­ences bring people with ser­i­ous cre­den­tials to help us bet­ter our think­ing as elec­ted offi­cials. Some high­lights include a work­shop I atten­ded that examined plur­al­ity think­ing in the con­text of muni­cip­al­it­ies. We worked with other rep­res­ent­at­ives to high­light both the advant­ages and poten­tial down­sides of emer­ging oppor­tun­it­ies in our com­munit­ies. Another work­shop focused on the import­ance of clearly com­mu­nic­at­ing muni­cipal decisions in a trans­par­ent, access­ible, and con­sist­ent way. Muni­cipal gov­ern­ments can often get lost in the noise when people's atten­tion is else­where. This involves good com­mu­nic­a­tion, whether through social media, print, or dir­ectly enga­ging cit­izens on a reg­u­lar basis.