The tides appear to be shifting in the relationships between Canadian premiers and the federal government.

On Friday afternoon, in Washington, D.C., five provincial leaders are set to meet with deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland and U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer — a meeting that provincial sources say was organized by Freeland’s office, and extended as an invite to the group of premiers. At the same time, the premiers and their teams are noting a marked change in relations with Ottawa since Freeland assumed her new post-election role.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney addressed the shift directly while speaking briefly with reporters in D.C. on Friday morning. “Look, it’s no secret that the prairie provinces, prairie Canadians, are very concerned about the direction of the national government. That was reflected in the federal election just a few months ago,” Kenney claimed.

SUBSCRIBERS ONLY: Right-leaning premiers show their resistance to protectionism on U.S. trade trip

This fall’s schismatic vote lost the governing Liberals every seat across Alberta and Saskatchewan, widely interpreted to be a show of some cracks in the Canadian federation. Trudeau, in the wee hours of the morning after his election, conceded in Montreal that he’d heard the frustration from the west. Freeland, who was born in Peace River, Alta., was shortly after appointed to the role of deputy prime minister and minister of intergovernmental affairs.

“The prime minister has responded, appointing a deputy prime minister originally from Alberta to work with us on those concerns,” Kenney said. So far, he reported seeing “some progress.”

“There’s a long way to go yet, but at least we feel that some of our issues are being listened to,” he explained. Kenney expressed a hope that the new relationship would materialize through actions like federal approval for the Teck Frontier oil sands mine project.

READ MORE: Five Canadian premiers — plus Chrystia Freeland — head to D.C. this weekend to talk trade

Freeland was scheduled to first meet with Lighthizer alone, before the group assembled — heading into a closed-door tête-à-tête at 3:30 p.m., before being joined by Kenney, Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe, Ontario’s Doug Ford, Quebec’s François Legault and New Brunswick’s Blaine Higgs at 4 p.m. Capping off the schedule for Friday is a dinner to be attended by Freeland, the various premiers and Canada’s acting ambassador to the United States Kirsten Hillman. The premiers and Freeland were not scheduled to meet privately before linking up with Lighthizer.

A source in Ford’s office told iPolitics on Friday morning that Freeland’s new role, in their view, was working well. “This relationship with Chrystia — Chrystia specifically — is new. It’s positive,” they said. “It’s someone that we know really has the ear of the prime minister. We know it’s not just someone who’s there to calm the premiers’ concerns. She’s listening.”

The source noted that both Moe and Kenney had made similar remarks on Friday — claiming that it “hasn’t always been the case” to have the degree of accessibility to the feds that they’ve experienced since the fall election. Moe, who reportedly expressed hope in a reset relationship between Saskatchewan and Ottawa following a post-election sit-down with Freeland, also spoke positively about the change in relations since Freeland was appointed to her new post.

“We have seen an improved relationship, through the deputy prime minister,” Moe told reporters in D.C. He lauded Freeland’s “outreach” to Saskatchewan so far, in particular, when asked what specifically had changed. “It seems to be an attitude change. It really does.”

Some files the federal government faces pose particular risks of inflaming tensions in western Canada, including conversations about pipelines, oil and gas, and — extending out to other provinces, too — carbon pricing. It remains to be seen how the Trudeau Liberals will navigate those issues throughout their second term in office, though there may be a degree of new cohesion on the carbon pricing file brewing in Manitoba. Premier Brian Pallister told reporters in Winnipeg last month that the province was now reconsidering a homegrown carbon tax.

“I think it’s fair to say that there is going to be a dialogue with the federal government, in respect of our ‘Made in Manitoba’ green plan, and that dialogue will include a carbon price of some kind,” Pallister said at the time, after meeting face-to-face with Trudeau and Freeland.

Another lingering intergovernmental issue is an ongoing by the federal Grits of Canada’s stabilization payment system, which was prompted by a request from Canada’s 13 premiers collectively in December. Finance Minister Bill Morneau pledged in mid-January to announce the review’s conclusions “in the not too distant future.” Kenney, specifically, has asked that a per-capita cap is removed from the federal financial assistance program, and that retroactive payments are made to Alberta dating back to the time of the oil crash.

In the Lighthizer meeting on Friday, provinces will push both their own agendas and more nationally-minded points. In the morning, the Ontario government unveiled a new trade strategy, the details of which had previously been reported by iPolitics. The plan focuses on the pursuit of Strategic Investment and Procurement agreements, which they hope will allow for special access to procurement for projects like roads and bridges in certain states.

READ MORE: Ford’s new U.S. trade strategy to focus on state-funded infrastructure procurement access

The strategy is a response to Buy America rules, which Canada’s premiers have collectively urged the feds to work against — labelling the provisions as “protectionist measures.” The source in Ford’s office said Friday that the meeting between the premiers, Freeland and Lighthizer allowed them to present a united front to the U.S. around such concerns. (Moe, on Wednesday, told reporters that while all premiers supported the pushback against Buy America, the opposition was largely coming from the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.)

While the Canadian political leaders also appear to be on the same page around USMCA, voicing support for the ratification of the new trade deal in Canada, some premiers also intend to raise issues of local relevance in their meeting with Lighthizer. For Kenney, that includes a push on U.S. officials to ensure they’re doing all they can to get the Keystone XL pipeline built.

Quebec’s Legault, meanwhile, had planned to utilize the weekend broadly to promote the hydroelectricity abilities of his province. (Asked Friday about Quebec’s relationship with Freeland, a spokesperson for Legault wrote in a short emailed statement simply that the premier had a good relationship with Trudeau and “all members of his government.”)

Despite individual asks, Moe, speaking to reporters on Wednesday before departing for Washington, appeared to largely align the premiers’ hopes with those of the federal government — adding that they were looking forward to Freeland’s presence. “Canada has one foreign relations policy, and that we support as we head into foreign markets,” he said.