Tenerife surpasses Gran Canaria in employees and in air connectivity

Full at the Real Casino de Tenerife, with the presence of about 140 people. Joaquín Catalán, director of EL DÍA, presented the forum while Josefa Mesa, mayoress of Guía de Isora and Martín’s party partner, glossed over the figure of the guest. With a nod to that foundation on which he revolved a good part of the speech, the one that his father, Paquito, reminded him of every time he left home, next to the store that he managed with his mother, Rosario. Mesa sketched a portrait: avid reader, music lover, very detailed, witty and with a sense of humor. The candidate for reelection of the Isorana Mayor’s Office summarized: “Tenerife has a guaranteed foundation with him.”

Martín acted as American-style master of ceremonies. Armed with an earpiece and a remote control, supported by Powerpoint slides and with brief tours between the tables or towards the stage, he reeled off these four years of “hard work” in sixteen large blocks and two premises: addressing the problems, such as “putting order” in the 69 dependent public companies -of which a dozen have closed-, and making things easier for the people by bringing the Cabildo closer to the citizenry.

Martín pointed out that «we start from the work we have done, we do not come with invented ideas because the elections». He added: “We have laid the foundations for future projects”, and highlighted the work carried out in the field of renewable energy, where he considered that a great leap has been made since 2019, as well as in road improvement projects. He also valued the remarkable growth experienced in the social sphere and in specific actions, “such as administrative simplification to reduce the enormous bureaucratic burden of administrations.” He assessed: “We have developed projects, obtained financing and put out tenders to be able to start works.”

Employment. Martin offered data. For example, that Tenerife has 382,960 people affiliated with Social Security; that is, working, and Gran Canaria, 354,384. In other words, there are 28,576 more employees on this island than on the capital of the eastern province. The evolution of the two islands during the mandate shows that 33,703 jobs have been created in Tenerife and 26,941 in Gran Canaria. For Pedro Martín, “the merit is not ours alone and much remains to be done, but there are reasons to rejoice at the best data in many years.” The president detailed some measures with good results, such as the employment plans “with all the municipalities of Tenerife”, with 26.2 million investment and 12,348 people served; He cited the Barrios por el Empleo program, which overcame the barrier of 1,000 people with difficult job placement who have been given access to a job, and recalled the new line of aid with 25 million euros, to promote hiring of personnel by companies. Related to this area, education, with scholarships to study in more countries for ten million annual budget and the intention to increase 15 in the next term.

Tourism. Also in connectivity Tenerife surpasses Gran Canariawarns Peter Martin. Thanks to the work carried out by the area since the beginning of the mandate, there are already connections with 110 routes around the world. The settlement of the old frictions with AENA to reform the two airports or the reform of emblematic spaces such as the Hotel Taoro, in Puerto de la Cruz, are some axes of Tourism policies. Without forgetting the rehabilitation of the coast, with 54 actions on the coast for 43 million euros. Martín announced, within the new visitor niches, the agreement with United Airlines, which operates the direct flight to New York and with 36 five-star hotels on the Island. He guaranteed the firm commitment to the audiovisual sector, which it spent last year 101 million euros in Tenerife with the completion of 122 filmings, and underlined the planning to have film studios on the Island in the future, under the insular impulse of private capital.

Water and primary sector. The Council of Tenerife has invested 250 million euros in the purification and sanitation of sewage, whose untreated discharge into the sea has led to various sanctions by the European Union (EU) in the past. Five large systems underway –153 million euros in works– will allow 95% of the Island’s wastewater to be cleaned, in addition to creating an insular ring of large regional treatment plants, the source of reclaimed water “in quantity and quality” for the irrigation, for now, of 55% of the insular field. Pedro Martín never tires of repeating that agriculture, livestock and fishing, that is, the primary sector, “is strategic for this government.” This is demonstrated by the 3.5 million euros to contain the price of water; the 6.9 investment in rafts and pipes or the 6.3 direct aid to farmers, without forgetting the support for the installation of solar panels in the ten fishermen’s associations on the island.

Roads. Pedro Martín announced that the closure of the island ring will be completed next year and that “already in February the Erjos tunnel was over 80% completed. These 11 kilometers that will allow 30,000 vehicles to be removed from the TF-5 will be finished in 15 months. He mentioned the burying of the Autopista del Sur between Fañabé and Playa de the Americas, as well as “the most important work on the Island to put an end to the problems on the TF-5, the variant from Guamasa to the lower part of La Laguna, in Lora and Tamayo.” This action will mean that around 60,000 vehicles will divert to relieve traffic. He alluded to the third lane between La Orotava and Guamasa, “approved, but still without an environmental evaluation, like the two previous ones,” he added. He also referred to other works being carried out by the Cabildo, such as the Padre Anchieta pedestrian walkway or the recently opened tunnel of the TF-24, the La Esperanza highway. He valued the fact of ending the divorce of previous mandates in this matter between the Cabildo de Tenerife and the Government Canary Islands. “The result was an absolute standstill,” said Martín. He emphasized “the joint effort to try to solve this problem.” So much so, he pointed out, that “the budgets of the autonomous community include the largest items for roads in Tenerife, more than on any other island, and that, curiously, did not happen before.” He summarized: «Most of the works have a project, environmental assessment and financing. This is important, because when some people tell us that they solve road problems in 90 days –a reference to Rosa Dávila, CC candidate–, we remind them that «I don’t know of any project of more than 100 or 200 million euros that I can do in a year or two.” Before leaving this chapter, he referred to the more than 30 million euros invested in resurfacing the two motorways.

Mobility. The president was clear and concise. Bet on public transport and investment to promote the purchase of up to 300 more buses, as well as to hire another 230 workers for the Titsa company.

Funds ‘Next Generation’. The money that Europe contributes in an exceptional and temporary way has been essential to develop new tourism sustainability plans. The Cabildo de Tenerife is the local Canarian administration that has presented the most initiatives and has received the most European resources: 41.8 million euros already granted for projects and another 58.3 pending. Within this framework, Martín gave an account of the Tenerife Reset, endowed with 7.5 million, which contemplates various strategic lines related to offsetting the sector’s carbon footprint, improving mobility, digitization, promoting gastronomy, biodiversity and culture, the improvement of roads and trails, as well as research and analysis for the conversion and competitiveness of the destination. The insular network for bird watching on Isla Baja and Teno received 2.8 million and the Anaga Rural Park another three. There is also European financing for projects such as Canalink, a public island company, which has 23.4 million euros for the deployment of an underwater cable with Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, as well as for a study of new connections.

Renewables. Martín quantified that between 2015 and 2019, 379,000 megawatts of wind energy were generated. In this term, from 2019 to 2023, “there have been 885,000 megawatts.” The idea is to increase renewable green energy through various projects encompassed in environmental protection. He highlighted the geothermal one, for 31 million euros. He specified that “this is one of the great alternatives, because, through the Involcan studies, we can know where to prospect to take advantage of an inexhaustible source of resources.” The goal is to have a geothermal electricity production plant before 2030. He developed the idea of ​​”democratizing energy with the largest photovoltaic project in Tenerife and an investment of nine million euros.” For this, “I hope to sign the purchase of the first 100,000 square meters very soon, of the more than 300,000 that we hope to have to create a plant in which we are going to divide the shareholding between municipalities, the self-employed, small companies, hoteliers…” . And he spoke of “a before and after” when the “future Güímar hydroelectric power station is built, held back by judicial processes already resolved, related to the extraction of aggregates. Up to 70 possible locations have been searched.

Social action. The president dissected two key areas: dependency and the third sector, with volunteering integrated into Tenerife Isla Solidaria. Its balance in numbers reflects 32 new specialized resources for vulnerable people and groups, 610 residential places, 240 specialized home service, 1,188 telecare and 12 centers under construction to be tendered. Regarding the program, he used the comparison. From 430,000 euros in 2019 to 1.3 million in 2023, and from 430 entities associated with 600, plus 4.7 million for the distribution of food and basic aid.

Service to the citizenry. An objective for the socialist president: the reduction of bureaucracy. This includes the suppression of some one hundred administrative procedures or going from receiving 15% of entry records at the electronic headquarters in 2019 to 73% in 2022. In this mandate, it has been reduced by 18%, some 20 business days less, the Subsidy processing time. He highlighted the improvement in the citizen service; the municipal modernization plan 2020-2023, endowed with 7.1 million euros; the reinforcement of all municipalities, especially those with less than 20,000 inhabitants, in cybersecurity, modernization of processes, electronic administration and accessibility or the creation of the Office of Comprehensive Assistance to municipalities, “unique in the Canary Islands”, he added. .

Martín defended the work in four “very difficult” years, despite which he considers that “we left the Island better than how we found it.” He finished with a nod to the boomers, his generation, by using the old catchphrase: “Search, compare and if you find something better…”.

Pedro Martín starred in the forum Una gestión con fundamento. Above, from the left, Jorge Dávila, deputy director of EL DÍA; the vice-deans of the European University of the Canary Islands, María Cadenas and Juan Diego López; Pedro Martín,Miguel Villarroya, from Spring Hotels; Josefa Mesa, mayoress of Guía de Isora; Joaquín Catalán, director of EL DÍA, and Carlos Delgado, manager of EL DÍA.