Prairie premiers hope the first ministers' meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper this upcoming Friday will influence the federal budget.
The dinner meeting at 24 Sussex Drive was called to deal with the soaring Canadian dollar, surging energy prices and lost manufacturing jobs.
"We have all been listening to industries and workers and communities, and (we want) to make sure that what we're hearing across the country is reflected and has an opportunity to be focused in the next federal budget," Manitoba Premier Gary Doer told CTV's Question Period on Sunday.
Doer said that it doesn't make sense for the provinces to have separate forestry policies, for example, and would like to see a coordinated approach to such sectors across the country.
Doer also suggested that investing in the retraining of workers may be a way of preparing Canada for the future.
"I believe that investing in a skilled economy and in education and training is also useful because you continue to grow the economic pie."
There is an opportunity, he said, for both levels of government to look at the "skill gap" that he predicts the country will have in the next 10 years.
Saskatchewan's newly elected Premier Brad Wall told Question Period that he also has specific goals in the area of federal-provincial relations, such as a strategy for maintaining his province's current economic boom.
"The answer in many ways of course is infrastructure," Wall said. "It's the best way to avoid some of the challenges of growth that we have seen in other western provinces. We believe there is a dynamic role for both... our new government and the federal government to play in terms of that long-term infrastructure plan."
Wall said that he differs in some ways from his predecessor, Lorne Calvert, who threatened to take the federal government to court, demanding a better deal on resources.
"We have a full agenda in terms of the relationship that we want to forge. It's our vision that Saskatchewan has leadership that acts like it's leading a "have" province, and a province that intends to stay a "have" province," he said, adding that his province intends not to rely on equalization payments in the future.
Wall expects the rest of Canada to turn to Saskatchewan for leadership due to its oil and gas wealth and the fact that it possesses a third of the world's uranium.
