Ottawa, Apr 18 (IANS): Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced new financial measures to help the energy sector hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Over the past few weeks, the pandemic has created anxiety and uncertainty for all Canadians, but some are going through an especially tough time. COVID-19 has brought many industries to a halt, and workers across the country are struggling as a result," Trudeau said at a press conference here on Friday.

Trudeau said that dropping oil prices and the economic impact of combating COVID-19 have devastated the country's energy sector and left too many workers on the jobless lines, reports Xinhua news agency.

"To help these workers, our government will invest C$1.7 billion ($1.2 billion) to clean up orphaned and inactive wells in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia," he said.

"Cleaning them up will bring people back to work and help many landowners who have had these wells on their property for years but haven't been able to get them taken care of and the land restored."

He said his government will also provide C$750 million as emission-reduction fund to help energy companies reduce methane gas emissions.

As of Friday afternoon, there were 31,642 COVID-19 cases and 1,310 deaths across the country, according to CTV.