Jobs, skills training, infrastructure and energy are among the topics on the agenda as Canada's premiers and territorial leaders gathered Thursday morning for their first full-day of meetings in Niagara-on-the-Lake.


The premiers are expected to tackle the contentious $900-million Canada Job Grant plan announced by the federal government in the budget in March.


Some premiers are not happy with the plan struck by the federal government without consulting with the provinces.


Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter has called it a "mystery program," that is inconsistent with good public policy.


As the premiers spent the morning meeting behind closed doors, protesters rallied outside to call on the premiers to press the federal government to provide more funding for healthcare.


Ottawa has said it will increase health-care funding by six per cent a year until the 2016-17 fiscal year, at which point the amount given to the provinces will be tied to economic growth.


On Wednesday, the premiers met with aboriginal leaders and agreed to support a call by the Native Women's Association of Canada to launch a national public inquiry into the case of missing or murdered aboriginal women.


The federal government has dismissed calls for a national public inquiry saying it has already taken concrete steps to improve the justice system.


Several rallies are planned across Canada on Thursday to draw attention to recent revelations that the federal government conducted nutritional experiments on aboriginals in the 1940s.


Participants will be asking the federal government to release all documents on residential schools to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.


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