OTTAWA—The federal government has rolled out a grab bag of financial aid worth almost $4 billion to clean up abandoned oil wells, support arts and culture and aid small business startups as Ottawa funnelled help to hard-hit sectors of the economy.

The initiatives announced Friday will support at least 10,000 jobs in the oil and gas sector where “workers and families are struggling because of things beyond their control,” Trudeau told reporters Friday.

The government is also bolstering the capacity of two of its lending facilities, providing extra government-backed credit to help severely distressed sectors of the economy meet their payroll and pay their bills.

Friday’s move builds on previous announcements to provide credit and targets medium-sized businesses with greater financing needs, starting in the energy sector. But future announcements are expected to expand the credit help for other sectors such as forestry and retail. The assistance will come in the form of loans between $15 million and $60 million repayable over four years.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau said this assistance was critical, especially for companies in the energy sector, “to help bridge them through a really difficult time.”

Public health officials on Friday reported 30,659 cases of COVID-19 nationwide and 1,250 deaths from the virus. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said there was cause for being “ever so slightly, cautiously optimistic” that the pandemic may be flattening in Canada.

In their weekly call, premiers and the prime minister talked Thursday about the economic impact of the lockdown as they contemplated next steps to restart the economy when the health threat ebbs.

“We all agreed that we need to continue to remain very, very vigilant as we carefully look at reopening the economy, about relaunching certain sectors in the future,” he said.

“This is Canada which means that there are very different needs and very different approaches that will be in place across the country,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau said the border between Canada and the United States was likely to remain closed to non-essential travel to ensure the “safety” of Canadians. “We do not feel that reopening the border anytime soon is likely,” he said.

Friday’s announcement sprinkled funding in a variety of directions in a bid to help sectors that have fallen through the cracks of fiscal measures already announced.

There was almost a billion dollars into regional development agencies and research funds — money that is meant partly to help high-tech start-up firms that have been missed by other supports.

Canadian Heritage got $500 million to support arts, culture and sports organizations suffering lost revenue because of closed facilities and cancelled events.

Two of the measures target the oil-and-gas sector that was already limping before the pandemic struck. Oil prices have fallen to record lows partly because of a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia. That war has abated but oil prices have not recovered.

“We recognize that certain industries are facing even more difficult times,” Trudeau said, pointing in particular to oil and gas. “Those industries are particularly hard hit.”

Ottawa committed $1.7 billion to the cleanup of an estimated 5,650 abandoned oil-and-gas wells in Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C., an initiative that Trudeau said would create 5,200 jobs as well as tackle long-standing environmental concerns.

Ottawa has been talking with Alberta about funding to clean up oil wells since the last federal election.

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“Cleaning (abandoned oil wells) up will bring people back to work and help landowners who had these wells on their property for years but haven’t been able to get them taken care of and the land restored,” Trudeau said.

“Our goal is to create immediate jobs in these provinces while helping companies avoid bankruptcy and supporting our environmental targets,” he said.

The government will also provide $750 million in loans to help energy companies comply with stricter methane regulations. He acknowledged that given the industry downturn, the costs of compliance could be onerous. Of that, $75 million will go to cut emissions in the offshore industry in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Just because we’re in a health crisis doesn’t mean we can neglect the environmental crisis,” Trudeau said.

Federal assistance for the oil sector risks stirring protests. But the environmental focus of Friday’s funding drew plaudits. The Pembina Institute said both initiatives will put people to work and help tackle two of the persistent problems of the sector — abandoned oil sites and methane emissions, “one of the most potent greenhouse gases.”

Trudeau and Morneau have indicated repeatedly that extra help will be coming for industries that are being decimated by the pandemic: oil and gas, tourism, airlines and commercial real estate.

Companies that have seen a large drop in revenue are able to tap into the federal government’s wage subsidy that would pay 75 per cent of a firm’s payroll. But the federal government has been quick to acknowledge that some key sectors will need extra support because the damage is so deep.

“Right now, workers and families (in the energy sector) are struggling because of things beyond their control. Both the devastating effect of the pandemic and the price war driven by foreign interests are a challenge,” Trudeau said.

“As a result, companies have had to slow down or pause their operations, leaving too many people out of work.”

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney praised Friday’s promise of funding to speed the cleanup of old wells.

“This is critical to getting thousands of people in the energy sector back to work immediately,” he said on Twitter.

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