TORONTO -- Ontario’s Minister of Labour is calling for changes to be made to a federal sick leave program amid criticism from some advocates who say that the Ford government should be the ones to step in to fill the gaps.

Monte McNaughton sent an open letter to his federal counterpart on Wednesday identifying a myriad of issues with the Canada recovery sickness benefit, which provides employees who have to miss work due to illness or mandated self-isolation with up to $500 per week for up to two weeks.

In the letter, McNaughton said that his government believes that “maximizing” the program and “not duplicating efforts” is the best way to support workers. But he said that “there are important issues that need to be resolved.”

Specifically, McNaughton called on the feds to do “everything possible to get money into people's pockets faster.”

He also criticized the current requirement for workers to lose 50 per cent of their work week to qualify, which he said “does not align with advice for workers to stay home when they are first feeling sick or awaiting test results.”

He also said that a rule prohibiting people from receiving money from the program more than once should be removed as “workers sometimes experience multiple COVID-19 scares that require taking tim off work to test and/or quarantine.”

“I understand that you are amending the legislation to close the loophole of paid quarantine for those who choose to travel internationally. This is the perfect opportunity to improve the program for those making the right choice to quarantine to protect others,” he wrote. “By working together, we continue to protect the health and economic well-being of the people of Ontario, and I am confident we will defeat this deadly virus.”

The Progressive Conservative government has faced sustained criticism for not introducing its own paid sick leave program during the COVID-19 pandemic but Premier Doug Ford has said that he sees “no reason” to “jump in” when the federal program already exists.

Speaking with reporters at a briefing last week, Toronto Mayor John Tory said that “it doesn’t really matter which government resolves” the issues with the sick leave program so long as they are addressed.

“It is time for it to happen. I can’t even count how many times I have sat here and said this is an urgent issue that is causing people to go to work sick,” he said at the time. “It is not right and we should fix it.”

The Ontario government did previously have its own paid sick leave program but it was eliminated in 2018.