TORONTO - The head of Ontario's embattled workplace insurance agency should not have held a lobbying session at one of Ottawa's most expensive downtown steakhouses, opposition critics said yesterday, calling the affair an inappropriate use of public money.

Conservative MPP Tim Hudak said Steve Mahoney, chairman of the Workplace Safety Insurance Board, was trying to "show off" to former colleagues in Ottawa when he held a reception at Hy's Steakhouse on May 5. Mr. Mahoney is a former Liberal MP and MPP who served as secretary of state for Crown corporations in the Jean Chrétien government.

"They went to the swankiest bar in all of Ottawa, the Martini Ranch at Hy's Steakhouse, so Mr. Mahoney could show off what a big man on campus he was to his former Liberal friends," Mr. Hudak said. "It was an inappropriate use of funds that were supposed to be for injured workers."

Mr. Mahoney yesterday said he held the two-hour reception on May 5 to lobby federal MPs on two issues: the continued recognition of a national day of mourning for workers killed on the job, and the addition of the WSIB as a secured creditor in business bankruptcy.

He said the reception cost less than $1,000 and was attended by Conservative MPs, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, whip Jay Hill and members of the finance minister's office. Speaker of the House Peter Milliken was there, as were fellow Liberal MPs John McKay, Karen Redman and Wayne Easter.

Mr. Mahoney said the expense was "money well invested" and insisted he was not spending taxpayer dollars.

"There's no taxpayer money at all in this," he said. "The WSIB is not funded by taxpayers, they're funded by employer premiums."

However, Labour Minister Brad Duguid, who appeared caught off guard by reports about the event, described the WSIB as very much a guardian of public dollars.

"I will be speaking to him that indeed that the message is sent that we want to make sure that any expenditure of taxpayers dollars is done responsibly," Mr. Duguid said.

Mr. Mahoney said he personally paid for a portion of the evening's expense. "Any alcohol that was consumed was all paid for by me. I held a private dinner afterwards and I picked up the tab. ... It was a personal expense by me."

Other critics wondered about that logic.

"If he can pick up the booze, he should pick up the steak," said New Democratic MPP Peter Kormos, who, along with leader Howard Hampton, is calling for Mr. Mahoney to resign from his post. "Why does he feel guilty about paying the liquor portion to the WSIB premium payers, but he doesn't feel guilty about charging 50 steaks?"

Mr. Mahoney, who was appointed to the helm of the WSIB in April 2006, came under fire last month for a WSIB program that has given millions of dollars in rebates to companies prosecuted and fined by another arm of the government for workplace deaths and injuries.

In many cases, the value of the rebates far exceeded the amount of the fines. Premier Dalton McGuinty has called some of those discoveries, unearthed by the Toronto Star, an "embarrassment."