Steven Del Duca has started his campaign day in Toronto with a promise to tackle healthcare wait times.

“And this $1-billion dollars will help make sure that we expand our capacity in our hospitals, our public hospitals. It will make sure we have the staffing in place, it will make sure that we can run our MRI procedures, our CT scan procedures, our operating rooms full tilt, on weekends, in evenings, and that they’re properly staffed and properly funded and properly supported,” Del Duca explained.

The Liberal leader went on to say the plan will make hospitals more efficient by creating a centralized referral system to shorten wait times.

According to data from Ontario Health, wait times are longer than the target for hip and knee replacements, cataract procedures, breast cancer, liver and pancreatic cancer procedures as well as general paediatric surgeries and orthopaedic bone and spine surgeries.

Del Duca was also asked a few times by reporters about Stephen Lecce’s apology for his involvement in a slave auction while at Western University.

Del Duca says it’s not his place to accept Lecce’s apology, “I think it’s the people who are directly impacted by unacceptable and deeply, deeply troubling behaviour who should be a part of the conversation.”

There are calls for Stephen Lecce to withdraw as the Progressive Conservative candidate for re-election in the riding of King-Vaughan.

Three black NDP members say Lecce was involved in events that mocked and trivialized slavery and chose to conceal that.