TORONTO

A Scarborough NDP candidate has complained to Elections Canada over "potential misuse" of public resources after a high-ranking doctor from a local hospital invited board members to a fundraiser for Liberal candidate and former police chief Bill Blair.

Dan Harris, the NDP candidate for Scarborough Southwest, confirmed Saturday he and his team filed a complaint after an internal e-mail surfaced from The Scarborough Hospital CEO Robert Biron, on behalf of Dr. Dr. Dhun Noria, to board members.

Further complicating matters: Noria happens to sit on the Toronto Police Services Board and Blair joined the TSH Foundation board after he stepped down as police chief.

"We have launched a formal complaint with Elections Canada ... to ensure that the rules are being followed," Harris said of Biron's e-mail about the Sept. 18 event. "Our health-care system is strained enough without doctors and other health-care professionals campaigning on behalf of candidates in the hospital."

Harris pointed out both Biron's and Noria's hospital e-mail addresses were used in the notice.

"I certainly think that it would be (a conflict of interest) because it brings up the question of why did (Blair) join the (foundation) board in the first place, and was it for political gain?" Harris said.

In a statement, Harris also alleges Noria called on members of hospital board to make donations to Blair.

In Biron's e-mail, he says: "Dr. Noria asked that I distribute the invitation to this event to the Board Directors for their personal consideration."

Late Saturday, TSH called it a "regrettable error."

"The Scarborough Hospital, its board, and administration are non-partisan," spokesman Holly-Ann Campbell said. "The use of hospital e-mail by Mr. Biron and Dr. Noria to distribute information about a political fundraising event was a regrettable error."

This isn't the first time Blair has found himself mixed up in controversy. In September, his successor as police chief, Mark Saunders, spoke at one of his campaign fundraisers.

"Saunders attends Blair rally. Blair & Noria support each other. People of privilege hang together," former Toronto police board chairman Alok Mukherjee tweeted Saturday.

Messages left for Blair's camp were not immediately returned.