An interview with Gints Kukainis, Chairman of the Smiltene Municipality Council

Let us start with the territorial reform, which does not significantly affect the Smiltene municipality…

I would not say that! The Smiltene municipality is not only remaining, it is growing larger! The Rauna and Ape municipalities will be added to us. We have developed good communication and cooperation with the local governments of both municipalities. We know Ape better, so to speak, as we share a Building Authority and Municipal Police, and we are in the same civil protection territory. We knew the Rauna municipality well enough; cooperation projects in the field of tourism are being implemented with them and the Ape municipality, but their wish to be together with us was a surprise! Every time we analyse various statistical indicators of the municipalities, we see: merging is logical! For the current three municipalities, the “backbone” is the A2 Riga-Veclaicene-Pskov highway. You can reach the parish centres via asphalted roads, except for Drusti, where the road will need to be fixed in the future. The prerequisite for the work and cooperation of the municipality and parishes is accessibility. We have researched that work with young people is successful in the Rauna municipality; we have many young people in Smiltene (Smiltene Technical School: more than 850 young people, a secondary school with 870 pupils), but there is no work with young people – here I see an opportunity, by merging, to complement each other. It is similar with cultural and historical objects; we in Smiltene have developed active tourism more, we do not have old castles to invite tourists to.

Aumeisteri Manor!

Yes, there is a manor in Aumeisteri, which is currently private property! For the Rauna and Ape municipalities, cultural and historical object tourism is very developed! Again, there is an opportunity to complement each other. The Smiltene municipality can “give” jobs to the future union of municipalities – we have the highest number of jobs (out of the three municipalities), and in recent years we have seen an increase in their number. Already 9.6% of employees commute to us from the Ape municipality, 5% from Rauna.

Latvian Radio reported that the Ape municipality itself wanted to be together with Smiltene. What about Rauna?

Yes, the Ape municipality wanted to merge itself! That is what the municipality leadership told us, and it seems this is also the council's decision. In Rauna, they were surprised by the potential division of the municipalities! At the first joint meeting, the leadership of the Rauna municipality was puzzled as to why they were “coming to us”, but with each meeting, we strengthened our understanding. We had a great meeting with the residents of the Rauna municipality: there were very specific questions and precise answers! Rauna also organised a public survey, as a result of which 48% of those surveyed supported joining the Smiltene municipality! Moreover, the most active support for cooperation with us came from the younger generation, which is a very valuable indicator!

Was there any nearby municipality that also wanted to be with Smiltene, but was “planned” elsewhere?

We have heard that there was a wish. But – “only heard”! Perhaps this wish was very timid; it was followed by neither meetings nor activities.

Three strong Vidzeme municipalities – Cēsis, Smiltene, Valmiera. You are relatively close to each other, there is a lot of activity!

We are called the Vidzeme economic triangle. The name is appropriate because, if one looks at the economic indicators of the three municipalities, the development is obvious. Smiltene moves more in step with Valmiera, Cēsis has chosen the status of a cultural centre. Business has long been well developed in Smiltene. We devote a lot to stimulating entrepreneurship – we build and repair streets and roads, build production buildings, and do everything possible to create jobs. Located 130 km away from Riga, there are no other opportunities for the development of the region and the municipality than work and jobs! Often we can accomplish quite ordinary things that do not require large financial investments. For example, the municipality has a map of investment objects, where anyone interested can find objects that are ready for investment, renting, or sale. The same map exists for the housing stock and rural farmsteads. Often, for an entrepreneur, an attitude is enough: he is welcome here! We are interested in him working here, and his company developing!

Solving the demographic, if one can say so, situation of the municipality. A call for people to come and live in rural houses! “Latvijas Avīze” wrote about this!

I myself live 20 km from Smiltene in a rural farmstead by the forest, and I clearly understand that a person needs very little from the local government – a road on which to arrive and depart! Speaking with the parish managers of the municipality, I have always emphasised the opportunities to do more in fixing up municipal and parish roads! So that the road is without potholes, so that it is flat, and cleaned on time in winter!

There is a shortage of living space in the city right now. In rural farmsteads, there is potential! Part of the farmsteads stand empty – the owner lives elsewhere or arrives only occasionally; for families who want to live in a rural environment, this is an opportunity! By creating an information platform, we provide this opportunity! Starting to develop the idea, we tasked each parish manager to identify those buildings in the territory under his supervision that could be sold or rented out (buildings that are actually “standing” empty). Currently, the data platform shows that for about 18 rural homesteads the owner has changed or, we hope, will change. We will see what happens next. A family recently came to me, who are moving to us from Olaine; they were looking for an opportunity, where to go, had travelled around Latvia, and noticed information about our municipality in the newspaper! People have bought a property 6 km from the city, arrived at the Council to get acquainted, and to confirm how good this idea is! During the conversation, they told us what they can offer the municipality; in less than an hour, we clarified a lot. The attitude requires only and exclusively time!

The database on available farmsteads is “in motion”, because: someone has already decided, or a conversation is taking place with those owners who are still thinking. What does that mean? It happens that the owner of a rural homestead lives in Riga, he owns this house and… until one specifically asks: “What will you do with the house? Maybe you want to rent it out? Maybe you are ready to sell it?” he does not think about such opportunities! This is a quite typical situation: a fairly well-off person owns a property, for which he pays a small tax every year, but visits it perhaps for a week or a few days a year.

In a recent interview with former Valmiera mayor Inesis Boķis, I heard an interesting message that the successful development of Valmiera was also facilitated by the consistent work of the councillors of the political position. How is it in Smiltene?

Smiltene has also been lucky in this regard! Both I and the previous Chairmen of the Council have been fortunate to work in unity – without the quarrels of position and opposition! Currently, the National Alliance (NA) has 9 out of 15 seats in the Council; when I began to lead the local government, NA had four seats, other lists together 11! Experience shows that we have common things in the municipality that we want to accomplish, and they are not political. The idea and the solution are the main things!

The future plan for the Smiltene municipality is: enough jobs so that a person has work, school, recreation, and a place to live.

Have Latvians returned to the Smiltene municipality from abroad?

Yes, we actively participate in the remigration programme, and the results are there! For example, the family of the Municipal Police chief returned to Latvia not so long ago. We have identified several families who are planning the road home; we are working with them. I will say: this is not a quick one-day decision! One starts thinking more seriously about returning when the children must start school! The second important prerequisite for every family – work! There will be work, there will be a reason even to think!

Currently, the unemployment level in Smiltene is 2.7%! Small, but we will still continue to stimulate the creation of jobs! Because the more jobs there will be, the better the housing stock will be developed, including the farmsteads I mentioned, and the more prerequisites there will be for people to want to live with us!

For casual observers, Smiltene is associated, primarily, with woodworking and dairy farming!

…and road construction! Smiltene has long been called the capital of road builders, and today five large road construction companies operate in the city. For example, work at “Sēnīte” is currently being done by a company from Smiltene! Our road builders work all over Latvia, including on bridge construction!

The foundation of our municipality's entrepreneurship, however, is formed by woodworking companies – the ten largest operate here, on the Smiltene side! Starting with “Stora Enso”, continuing with “Troll”, which produces children's cots, “Smiltenes koki”, “Granula Invest”, “Smiltene Impex”, “Vudlande”… Further – the already mentioned road construction. It is definitely worth mentioning that the largest local entrepreneur by turnover and number of employees operates in Smiltene: “Madara98” (Top! stores). The owner lives and works in our municipality!

You said that you live by the forest! Do you hunt and are you a forest owner?

I am a hunter and I own a forest! I am not a “large owner”, I own “a dozen or so” hectares of different ages! I must say, I am a rather lazy hunter! I prefer to go hunting on Saturdays and Sundays for the sake of walking and fresh air.

If you ask about a recent hot topic – bears, in my previous place of residence right here on the Smiltene side, for two years in a row, a bear visited my neighbours, damaging a bee apiary. So, these furry animals do not bypass our municipality.

Do you encounter restrictions in the municipality that often surprise the forest owner?

For any action that we carry out or try to do, a justification is needed: why we are doing it or trying to do it! The forest has been and will be in the future the basis for the development of Latvia's national economy! It is an industry that works and in which a very large number of people are involved. In my opinion, the skills and experience of forest management, both in state and private forests, increase qualitatively every year! The forest will not benefit if we plant it or leave it to naturally regenerate and… forget it! This period in our history has passed! We look at the forest professionally, similar to how farmers look at a field. We want the forests to grow, to grow qualitatively, and for everyone to gain something from it. Hearing about various restrictions that protect, for example, one beetle species, one must ask: is this the only place where the beetle lives? I know that we have quite a lot of protected territories, for example, around rivers, there are nature parks, there are National parks. To create a restriction, one must understand how special, important, and unique that which we want to protect is! If something is the only one in Europe, of course, one must do what one can! If there is plenty of the “protected” and it feels fine anyway, we act differently! To have an objective view, I will say – in the protection of nature objects and in restrictions, it is very difficult to “stay on the road” so as not to end up in one ditch or another!

We had already arranged a meeting when I read that in the new year a new position awaits you…

Yes! I have been in the leadership of the municipality for eight years, the last five – as Chairman of the Council! I am convinced that I do not want to be in office for too long and I do not want to annoy anyone! If I remained in office until the end of this convocation and also participated in the next elections, I would be “threatened” with work in the local government for 13 years. Too long! New ideas are needed, new energy, so that the Smiltene municipality grows and develops! I do not intend to disappear anywhere and hope to be a sufficiently active representative of the local community; I will be interested in developments, as before, but others will have the opportunity to prove themselves! In eight years, enough has been done, for every piece of work I can tell, explain, and talk!

Is there anything you wanted to do, and it did not happen?

There is! A “huge thing” that I thought and planned to change, to do, but – nothing! From the times of the town of Smiltene (even before the previous reform, when there were only towns and parishes) a “grief has remained”. Namely, a swimming pool, which an Estonian investor started to build and did not finish! There is a pit and foundations... Starting work in the municipality, the goal was to fix it all. In 8 years, it has not been possible to reach an agreement with the investor: the initial buy-back price was 1 million euros, which I have “bargained” down to 200,000! But that is also too large a sum for such a transaction!

Besides, I believe that for Smiltene, with its number of residents, a swimming pool is not necessary! The thought was to tidy up the territory! Swimming pools, if you look around, are in Valmiera (35 km), Priekuļi (40 km), Valga (45 km), the Balvi pool is also reachable!

In conclusion, once more about the territorial reform. Do you think the developments are right: “It will be so!” There is a lack of conversation…

In my opinion, regarding municipalities, we had a ready law and its norms! The law provides for municipalities with a certain number of residents. I think a decision was necessary: from 2021, municipalities must comply with and follow the existing law! That would be solely and exclusively up to the municipalities – with whom to talk, with whom to merge, how to act! VARAM today is acting with an initiative that moves the issue faster!

Will a larger municipality have more money?

There will be a larger budget! We, in the municipality, use indicators that reflect the situation more accurately: we divide the budget figures by the number of residents. It would be even more correct to look at the area to be managed and the real estate to be managed, for example, roads that are to be maintained. Then the numbers would be even more accurate and clear! For example, for the Ape and Rauna municipalities, merging will mean more opportunities, because Smiltene is part of the 21 regional centres – we had opportunities to apply for quite a lot of structural fund financing, for which neither the Ape nor the Rauna municipalities could apply until now, so they will be winners!