The federal government is expected to announce $1.6 billion in funding for Alberta鈥檚 struggling energy sector on Tuesday, CTV News has learned.

Most of the money would go towards job support.

The announcement is expected one day after Calgary鈥檚 mayor joined more than 1,000 protesters at a rally outside city hall who were calling on the government for more help getting Alberta鈥檚 oil and gas products to market.

鈥淟ook around you at all of these beautiful office towers,鈥� Mayor Naheed Nenshi said in a speech at the rally organized by the Canada Action Coalition. 鈥淥ne in four of them is empty,鈥� he added. 鈥淥ur unemployment went from one of the lowest in Canada to one of the highest.鈥�

Nenshi called oil and gas 鈥渢he most powerful anti-poverty tool in the world鈥� and said that 鈥渨e here in Canada do it better than anyone.鈥�

鈥淵es, climate change is real. Yes, climate change is happening,鈥� Nenshi went on. 鈥淵ou should not take a non-renewable resource and sell it at a giant discount,鈥� he said.

Alberta is currently getting about $12 less per barrel of oil it sells compared to U.S. producers -- due to a lack of pipelines that would connect the province to overseas markets where the products can fetch a higher price. The province estimates it鈥檚 losing $80 million per day as a result of its landlocked oil, which is increasingly sitting in warehouses.

In his speech to the crowd, Nenshi appealed to Quebec Premier Francois Legault to stop opposing the Energy East pipeline, which would extend an existing pipeline that currently ends in Ontario across Quebec and to refineries in New Brunswick.

鈥淭he fact is the approach of trying to marginalize Indigenous voices and ignore the environmental concerns was what Stephen Harper tried for 10 years and he couldn't get things built,鈥� Trudeau told Solomon.

The federal government quashed a pipeline known as Northern Gateway in 2016 that was conditionally approved by the National Energy Board, citing concerns about oil tankers traversing B.C.鈥檚 northern coast.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has acknowledged that the price differential is a crisis, but has repeatedly blamed the previous Conservative government, comments he repeated in an interview that aired Sunday on CTV鈥檚 Question Period with Evan Solomon.

At the same time, the government approved an expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion through southern B.C., going so far as to buy the project for $4.5 billion in May when there were questions over whether it would proceed. In August, a federal court said Trans Mountain could not go ahead because of their flawed environmental review and Indigenous consultations.

Asked about Energy East, Trudeau told Solomon that, under the current approach, 鈥渢here is no support for a pipeline through Quebec.鈥�

Alberta Premier Notley was not at Monday鈥檚 rally but her government taken several new measures in recent weeks to address the crisis, including proposing a new refinery, planning the purchase of 7,000 oil rail cars and cutting production by 325,000 barrels per day starting January 1.

Ashley Peroceviat, who attended Monday鈥檚 protest, said she was there because she wants to support oil and gas workers.

鈥淲e should support the industry and not allow the industry to have oil coming in from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela,鈥� she said.

鈥淭wo thousand jobs in Oshawa is nothing compared to our 100,000 job loss in Alberta,鈥� Peroceviat added, referring to the recent announcement that General Motors will stop building vehicles in Oshawa, Ont.

While much of Alberta鈥檚 oil and gas extraction is located in the north of the province, many corporate headquarters are located in Calgary. The city鈥檚 unemployment rate was below five per cent for most of 2014 and 2015. In November, it stood at 7.9 per cent.