Canarian Government to withdraw funding for fire-fighting Consorcio de Bomberos

[Janet]

The fourth vice president of the Tenerife Cabildo, José Antonio Valbuena, has told Diario de Avisos that the Canarian Government was aiming to stop funding the Consorcio de Bomberos. The Consorcio is currently funded jointly by the Cabildo, local Ayuntamientos, and the Canarian Government, but the regional executive apparently announced its plans to stop regional funding last December, and sees the funding of this essential service as a matter for the islands themselves. This would mean the Cabildo having to find funds from other insular sources to maintain Tenerife's fire fighting service.  Given that it's regional Government funding that is being withdrawn, the same will apply to the Consorcios of Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.

Sr Valbuena says that there have been several meetings since December to try to find a resolution with the Government, but at the end of April the Government confirmed its position. Where this leaves Tenerife, or the other islands, in the case of a major fire like last year's, heaven only knows, since the Cabildo is having difficulty in funding our single abattoir, let alone has the means to make up the shortfall, estimated in at least a couple of million Euros. We will have to trust to luck that the "social agents" who are to be approached to replace the withdrawn money have the funds ... and the will to supply them. JA

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

What is the difference between the Cabildo and the Canarian government? 

Why we have so many levels of government is for another thread I guess.

[Janet]

OK, levels of Govt in Spain.

As an autonomous region (autonomous in most respects other than things like national security, defence, national taxes, etc), the Canaries is just like any other autonomous region of Spain - the country is just a group of autonomous regions (19 or so). So as a region, we have the Canarian Government just like Valencia or Murcia have their own too.

Because they're considered scattered, and also because they're far from the centre of power (hence the ultraperipheral status), the Canaries is divided into two provinces - east and west, and so this Government is actually in two halves, with seats of power in Las Palmas and Santa Cruz. They are equal, and together form the Government of the Canaries.

Each island has its own governing council - the Cabildo. These take care of their specific island issues.

Each island is then divided into municipalities, governed by Ayuntamientos.

So there are three levels of Government in the Canaries. An example of how they operate might be the treatment of roads. When it comes to motorways, and so roads considered part of national infrastructure, they are organized and paid for (hah!) by the regional government. When it comes to arterial roads like the Adeje-Guia road, they are of specific island concern to improve communication within Tenerife itself, and so are organized and paid for by the Cabildos. Within a town or village, however, the roads are of municipal concern, and so organized and funded by the Ayuntamiento.

In the case of the Consorcio de Bomberos, they have tripartite funding, with money coming from each of these levels because the concern is simultaneously local, insular and regional ... or so one would have thought. That description is now going to be no longer valid.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

Thanks for that.

I now have a brilliant plan which will allow us to have a lot more funding for all the things we need, like finishing the TF-1, paying socorristos, abattoir workers, bomberos, and generally useful stuff:  cut out all these damned different and no doubt eye-wateringly expensive levels of government.  Presto! 

[Janet]

The joint fire brigades have created a petition calling on the Canarian Government to maintain its funding of the Consorcio. I never know how effective these are, but it has to be worth a try. The petition is HERE.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

Signed.

[Janet]

The Canarian Government has offered 60% of its previous contribution to save the three Canarian fire brigade consorcios. This will mean an investment of some €3,000,000, down from €5,000,000 in 2012. The announcement was received with relief by the consorcios of Tenerife and Lanzarote, but in Gran Canaria it met with suspicion that the other two consorcios were receiving favourable treatment at Gran Canaria's expense. The Government has denied any such favouritism, and says that the cuts were inevitable in economic and structural terms: it urged the three consorcios to homogenize their services to be more efficient and save money. A working group is now expected to start to flesh out the detail of how the services will now operate. JA