- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor
We are unclear about why Christopher Azavedo, candidate for Georgian Bluffs council, is being so coy with the residents of the Township about his employment. And his home. He is, after all, proudly running on a platform of transparency and accountability.
After Mr. Azavedo claimed that our last article about two Georgian Bluffs candidates including himself contained "a lot of false information in order to distract and deter people", we did further research. All of this, except for correspondence, is publicly available information.
Mr Azavedo went to Durham College for the “Mechanical engineering technician - non destructive evaluation” program. He received 2 scholarships; one year 1 in 2007, one year 2 in 2008 - his name was published in the Campus News.
He worked at Acuren Jul 2009 - Dec 2012, followed by Intech International and at some point Interface Testing Services Inc. The Linkedin profile which listed his location as Georgian Bluffs has been deleted but can be still be accessed.
It does not list OPG, but lists those previous specialized companies/positions, and then any mention of employment abruptly ends in 2016.
From 2016 to 2018 , he was a Project Technician - Mechanical - OPG. He was an Inspection and Maintenance Technician, also at OPG from 2018 to 2021, according to the "Sunshine List" of those years.
He is on the "List of ND personnel currently certified by Natural Resources Canada" along with all other OPG employees listed as "Inspection and Maintenance Technician" It lists Ajax as his base.
Perhaps what confuses us most about Mr. Azavedo's claim that his employer's code of conduct prohibits him from even revealing their name, is that he has been the Chief Union Steward for UNIT 17 (OPG-N) of the Power Workers Union as listed on their public page. All of this is what he describes in his About Me as "in the public utility sector".
In our correspondence Mr. Azavedo said "I am not agreeing with you that I work for OPG but I do have similar language in my code of conduct and for that reason I cannot disclose that information because it needs to be kept separate of the politics. I wish it was different because it would be easy to clear this up but I can not jeopardize my employment." He also asked "Are you aware OPG has sites across all of Ontario including here in Bruce County?" Lawyer John Tamming urged him to "consult with counsel since the fact is that any such policy, if it exists, would violate any number of Charter rights and would be void. The courts have so ruled repeatedly."
Having now confirned with a current co-worker and union member that Mr. Azavedo works for OPG in Pickering, we do recognize that may not be lhis long-term plan. The Ontario government is applying to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for an extension to run the Pickering nuclear plant until 2026, after which some of their employees may be looking for work at OPG and Bruce Power. We do not know if this is the case with Mr. Azavedo.
"I am a permanent resident of Georgian Bluffs and live here," he states, "I am not sure why you are stating otherwise." One reason is that one of the documents we received, sent by the Township concerning the cottage property in November 2020, was addressed to "Christina and Christopher Azavedo" at an Ajax address. According to their website, Bayshore Cottages is a seasonal business with no rental availability after this weekend, and immediate neighbours say the Azavedo family has not been there in winter, at least for the past five years.
Although Mrs. Azavedo has told at least one local resident that her children go to school "in the Whitby area", Mr. Azavedo told us in email correspondence: "It is completely inappropriate for any adult to ask questions about another person's children and where they go to school. This is a safety issue as it is unknown how this information will be used. However, I will confirm that your statement below about my kids going to school in Whitby is completely false."
In our correspondence, Mr. Azavedo contends that "the information you are quoting is false and defamatory" and he has saved a copy of our earlier post to pass on to his lawyer "if necessary". "I am interested in resolving these incorrect allegations as soon as possible because they simply aren't true."
We will commit to making any necessary corrections to the facts presented here for voters' consideration, and will offer a complete retraction and full apology if any of them are demonstrated to be false.
Mr. Azavedo says, if elected, he intends to be at all meetings in-person, and in fact he "strongly believes in repealing the by-law that allows council meetings to be virtual and I believe we as a council need to be in the seats in order to be constructive and effective. I support in-person meetings and do not support virtual meetings for the counci." He has also said that his short-term rental business is no longer advertised on AirBnB, and that if elected he would only offer his experience in that business as advice and would recuse himself "from making any decisions on this issue or for that matter any other issue that would be a conflict of interes."
