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Embattled Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach walked into a potentially charged meeting of the premiers Monday morning suggesting he does not need to sell his colleagues on Alberta's plan to tackle global warming.

Mr. Stelmach is under pressure from business leaders and environmental groups over a climate change plan released last week that leaves him at odds with the federal government and the other provinces. Critics say the plan will undo progress made in other provinces to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“It's a real plan for a real problem,” a defiant Mr. Stelmach told reporters going into the meeting, held in a downtown Vancouver hotel conference room overlooking the city's scenic mountains. “Albertans are buying it.”

Later Monday Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty warned the Harper government that Canada risks losing its pre-eminence as North America's No. 1 auto maker without federal funding.

Mr. McGuinty said the federal government is under new pressure to inject financial assistance into Ontario's auto sector in the wake of aid programs worth billions of dollars provided by the Bush administration south of the border.

Mr. McGuinty said Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has asked Washington for $5-billion (U.S.) in funding to help auto makers in her state develop more environmentally friendly vehicles. The funding would come from $25-billion that the Bush administration has earmarked for climate change.

Ontario's auto makers need similar help if they are going to build vehicles that conform to new fuel efficiency standards adopted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mr. McGuinty told reporters in Vancouver today.

“Are we going to work together to ensure we're going to meet that standard, failing which we are going to have some real challenges hanging on to market share here in the province of Ontario,” he said.

Mr. McGuinty made the comments with Quebec Premier Jean Charest during a joint news conference where the leaders of Canada's two largest provinces turned up the heat on the federal government to help out their provinces hard-hit manufacturing sectors.

The auto sector is the backbone of the Ontario economy, employing 400,000 workers. The McGuinty government unveiled a $1-billion fund last year to help auto makers develop new, green technologies. Mr. McGuinty is calling on Ottawa to participate in that fund.

Under the new fuel efficiency standard, which is consistent with the one adopted by U.S. President George W. Bush, car makers would have to enhance the fuel efficiency of their vehicles by by 40 per cent by 2020.

“We need federal support so we can retool and build that next generation of clean car in Ontario,” Mr. McGuinty said.

Mr. Charest criticized the Harper government for making a $1-billion federal fund to help one industry towns cope with job losses conditional on the passage of his government's next budget.

“There are people now, today as we speak who are in a very tough situation,” Mr. Charest said.

In the United States, the Bush administration has promised $100-billion in aid to help individuals and industry cope with a slowing economy.

“Compare that to Canada and the actions we've seen here and I think it begs the question why is the federal government of Canada not addressing this issue more aggressively,” he said.

Earlier Monday, Mr. Stelmach's provincial colleagues went out of their way to get the meeting off to a cordial beginning by avoiding publicly criticizing both his plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions and the fact that he is not sticking around for tomorrow's summit on climate change.

“This is a climate change conference not a beat-up-on-Alberta conference,” Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie told reporters.

At the same time, however, Mr. Fentie said he recognizes that each premier needs to represent his constituents but he warned they can't ignore the fact that global warming doesn't respect political borders.

“We must find ways to ensure that we don't negatively impact one province in an attempt to resolve another jurisdiction's issues,” he told reporters. “We have to find ways to do this in the best interests of Canadians.”

Manitoba Premier Gary Doer offered faint praise for Alberta's plan, saying it is a step in the right direction because it acknowledges that something must be done to combat climate change.

“I recall at some point in the not-so-distant past that Alberta wouldn't acknowledge there was a problem with climate change and greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

The premiers were also reluctant to criticize Mr. Stelmach for the fact that he is having his Environment Minister, Rob Renner, attend tomorrow's summit on climate change in his place.

Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald told reporters today that Alberta is “always an important voice at the table,” but he said it is up to Mr. Stelmach whether he attends or not. He declined to comment on Alberta's climate change plan unveiled last week.

“I'm not going to get into a province by province debate,” Mr. MacDonald said.

The main source of conflict in Alberta's climate plan is that it allows for production in the oil sands to quadruple and greenhouse gas emissions to rise in absolute terms.

Guy Boutilier, Alberta's intergovernmental affairs minister, said in an interview a hard cap would be “an extreme approach” that would endanger jobs.

“A hard cap means some people are going to be out of a job. It would hurt all of Canada,” he said.

Mr. McGuinty diverted attention away from what any single province is doing to combat climate change by calling on the Harper government to do more.

The various approaches taken by the provinces to combat climate change all “make the case for somebody, at some point in time, to assert the greater national interest in the face of a global challenge,” Mr. McGuinty said. “So it's not up to me to pass judgment on what Ed's doing. It's up to the federal government to come to the table.”

Mr. McGuinty and British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell hope to press their provincial colleagues to reach agreement on one aspect of global warming during tomorrow's summit.