OTTAWA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday announced that his government will provide financial aid for families of Canadian victims in the Ukrainian plane crash in Iran over a week ago, which killed all 176 people on board.
Trudeau said the government will provide 25,000 Canadian dollars (about 19,140 U.S. dollars) per victim "to assist with their immediate needs, such as funeral arrangements and travel."
This brings the total funding to 2.1 million Canadian dollars for all the Canadian citizens and permanent residents killed in the crash.
"It is not the compensation that we expect will come and should come from Iran in due course, but these families need help now and we will be getting this money to them as quickly as we possibly can in the coming days," Trudeau said at a news conference in Ottawa Friday morning.
Trudeau added his government continues to push for more access to the black boxes to indicate what exactly happened in the minutes before the plane set ablaze but noted they were "significantly damaged" during the crash.
Trudeau's announcement came after his meeting with the government's Incident Response Group to discuss the crash and the ongoing investigation.
Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne is in Oman for a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Canada cut its diplomatic ties with Iran in 2012.
