What we were trying to do here, Mr. Chairman, just to get the philosophy behind it was to try to tie the support, if you want, to a number of factors. One, we want to tie the support to jobs because jobs create revenues, creates consumer spending, creates taxation and creates confidence in the country at a time when it is desperately required.
Two, some of us saw and still do today, there may be some critics of this, which is understandable, critics of this investment and we wanted to tie it to the price of gold. In other words, once gold reaches a level that the mine can be profitable again, we wanted to get some of this money back and compensated. So the price of gold is a factor in this arrangement in that once the price of gold reaches somewhere around $400, and remains at that, Giant would be required to refund any GNWT assistance they may not have matched, at that time. There is a bit of a factor in there.
If I may, Mr. Chairman, I think it is important I state today, the support we are providing in this particular industry at this time, which is a net contributor to the territorial economy is a critical one. It works out to somewhere around $5,000 a job. We currently agree and it is part of the policy of the NWT Development Corporation in the creation of jobs to go up to $10,000 a job. This company and the other one that was interested at the time is a net contributor. It pays corporate taxes, it pays personal income taxes in its' staff, et cetera. Now if I can just give you one statistic, and it is not one to frighten anybody, but it is one to illustrate the importance of this industry.
If the two mines were to hypothetically shut down tomorrow and we lost close to 1,000 people, that would mean $17 million less on an annual basis, in your transfer payments. $17 million. Never mind any other aspects or the consumption both these larger mines create, the confidence they give the economy overall, the reassurance it gives bankers to continue to have some confidence in this part of the country, the personal income tax, the corporate income tax. The indirect aspects of employment; Jackfish, I understand employs six to eight people directly related to the purchasing of power for Giant Mines. My understanding is they pay close to $400,000 in power costs. It has a huge implication for us. This decision to provide assist in which I am an advocate of, was not taken lightly.
From my perspective, it was taken in light of the overall fiscal condition of the country and the fact that we do get significant revenues for it. I do want an opportunity to get that in. I recognize my colleagues concerns when we hear what is going on in the smaller communities, but you have to remember, when I projected a balanced budget, I also projected what I think I am going to generate the revenues. This is one area where we get within the small revenues we do generate, a significant amount. It is not as if we are not getting, as I like to say in a number of times, a return on investment. Thank you.