A group of Canadian premiers and American governors are urging Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump to strike a deal at this week’s G7 summit that eases U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports and ends the American leader’s threats to annex Canada.

The call was made at a Monday meeting in Boston between Eastern Canadian premiers and state governors from the U.S. northeast. It was issued before the White House announced that Mr. Trump was leaving the Group of Seven summit in Kananaskis, Alta., a day early because of the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Canadian officials said the two countries had plans to continue talks later this week.

Joy Fiddler sat outside a hotel smoking a cigarette, as her daughter, Saffron, registered their family of nine with the Canadian Red Cross. Fleeing from an out-of-control wildfire near her Northern Ontario home in Sandy Lake First Nation, she had slept for less than an hour after arriving more than 1,500 kilometres away in Cornwall.

“All I saw was orange,” Ms. Fiddler, 51, said Monday afternoon, recalling her 11-hour wait at the Sandy Lake airport, where military aircraft and helicopters have been landing since Saturday, struggling to airlift nearly 3,000 people amid heavy smoke.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government has passed its contentious legislation known as Bill 5, which gives the province sweeping powers to speed up mining or other development projects but has faced widespread backlash from First Nations and environmentalists.

The bill, which would create “special economic zones” that give the government power to suspend any provincial or municipal bylaw for chosen projects, has been sharply criticized by Indigenous groups who accuse the province of trampling on their treaty rights and failing to consult them.

Prime Minister Mark Carney released his government’s criteria for fast-tracking major infrastructure projects after a meeting with premiers on Monday, with a focus on proposals that could create a more independent economy and that have buy-in from Indigenous communities.

Mr. Carney’s government is promising two-year approvals for a range of projects that could include critical mineral corridors, ports, nuclear energy projects and pipelines. He has argued such projects are needed to boost Canada’s economy while also making it less reliant on the United States – a dominant theme of Mr. Carney’s election platform that was emphasized in last week’s Throne Speech.

Prime Minister Mark Carney was facing provincial pressure to support a new oil pipeline and repeal a federal environmental review law as he prepared to join premiers at a Monday first ministers meeting focused on fast-tracking major infrastructure projects and reducing red tape.

Ahead of Monday’s meeting in Saskatoon, Ontario announced separate agreements with each of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Prince Edward Island to reduce trade barriers between them. Lowering these interprovincial barriers was expected to be another major theme of Mr. Carney’s meeting with the premiers, his first since winning the federal election.

Premier Doug Ford says he encouraged efforts to remove a wooden structure that, for five years, has hidden the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald on the Ontario Legislature’s front lawn, saying the province has to support Canada’s first prime minister and stop worrying about the past.

The decision to reveal the statue, pushed by Progressive Conservative and Liberal members of a legislative committee earlier this week, has reignited debate about Macdonald’s tainted legacy at a time when the province is facing new tensions with First Nations.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says Prime Minister Mark Carney has an unprecedented opportunity to fix Canada’s approvals process for major infrastructure projects, as the Prime Minister is set to meet with premiers next week to outline his plan to fast-track nation-building initiatives.

Mr. Moe, whose province is hosting the First Ministers’ meeting in Saskatoon on Monday, said he’ll be pushing the federal government to support a “port-to-port” energy corridor to connect provincial resources to Asian and European markets and diversify away from United States.