Moe seconded Kenney saying he was thankful that premiers agreed to endorse a program that could help his province. «The people of Saskatchewan are very appreciative of your efforts here today,» he said to other premiers.

«Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador are in very difficult circumstances with the rapid drop in oil and resource revenues and we’re all asking the federal government to improve this program to provide more support to those provinces,» Quebec Premier François Legault said.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said while the 13 provinces and territories may have their differences, Canada is united. «We’re a united nation. When some of the provinces are struggling we’re all there. We’re going to be there, we support them, and we’re going to have their backs. It wasn’t too long ago Ontario was taking equalization,» Ford said.

Beyond the stabilization fix, the premiers have also agreed to ask Ottawa to bolster the country’s economic competitiveness by «improving» Bill C-69, the Liberal government’s controversial overhaul of the environmental assessment act. The premiers want Ottawa to exempt some projects that fall under provincial jurisdiction — most importantly in-situ oilsands projects in Alberta — from a mandatory federal review.

The federal Liberal government has said it would consider exempting new oilsands developments if Kenney maintains a cap on emissions from the sector.

The premiers said Canada must continue to develop its natural resources in a «responsible manner and ensure access to markets for Canada’s products» — a thinly-veiled reference to pipeline projects that will carry Canada’s oil and gas to markets abroad.

While B.C. Premier John Horgan and Legault have long opposed some pipeline developments, the two said Monday that the meeting was not focused on divisive issues.

Horgan said B.C. would continue to pursue legal action against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which has been approved twice by the federal Liberal government and is now owned by a federal Crown corporation. Legault has said he’d oppose a project like the now-defunct Energy East, which would have carried diluted bitumen from the West through Quebec to Saint John, N.B.

On the economic front, the premiers also demanded Ottawa tackle protectionist measures in the U.S., so-called «Buy America» provisions that prioritize U.S. companies for major infrastructure projects to the detriment of Canadian businesses, but also the ongoing softwood lumber dispute that has hurt provinces like B.C. and New Brunswick among others.

Premiers say health care is in crisis

The premiers said health care in Canada has reached a crisis point and the federal government needs to do much more to help provinces pay for their largest budget line item.

The premiers said Ottawa should lift the current health care spending growth cap — set at three per cent each year — to help provinces.

They said the Canada Health Transfer — the money the federal government sends to the provinces and territories to help them pay for health care — should grow by 5.2 per cent a year to better address mounting costs in the sector as the country’s population ages.

Increasing the growth rate by that amount — a growth rate the independent Conference Board of Canada has suggested would lead to a more equitable cost-sharing agreement — would cost the federal treasury about $1 billion more a year in transfers.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister said health wait times have grown over the last three years, according data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, and Canadians are waiting far too long for surgeries like hip and knee replacements because Ottawa has been slow to send more money to the provinces.

Pallister said Ottawa should park its plan for a national pharmacare plan and instead focus on improving the country’s existing health care system.

«Don’t start broadening health care when you can’t get it right now. Start by getting that right,» Pallister said.