Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I want to make it quite clear, this is raising the cost of living by less than a tenth of 1 per cent, so it's very minimal. If I thought this was something that was going to raise the cost of living by 10 or 15 per cent in the Northwest Territories, this bill wouldn't be in front of the House.
Through the Member's comments that he just made around the Yellowknife Airport, the one thing I want to -- I agree with a number of things that he said in comments, some of them were very valid, but one of the things doing this revolving fund Bill 7 moving forward is it's going to free up $4 million that we're already spending, not including capital, and what that money alone is going to do just in the Yellowknife area for every million dollars that we bring forward is going to create three and a half jobs. So just out of that $4 million, not even counting capital, is going to create roughly 14 jobs in the City of Yellowknife at the airport. So that's going to be an economic driver alone. So I think that's very important.
Also, this money that we're freeing up is also going to be used for other priority areas in this government that every Member in the House has brought forward, especially in this city, around healthcare, education, housing. This is the stuff that these departments have to fight with with our department over this money, and by doing this user pay system moving forward, this is going to free up the money for other initiatives that are very important to every Member that is sitting around this Assembly. That's not peanuts; $4 million going on every year that we already spend there not counting the capital. I don't want to get into a he said or they said; a couple of Members have made the point that I make a sales pitch, but I believe this is the right initiative moving forward for the Government of the Northwest Territories.
This is going to free up the money to put into other initiatives within the Government of the Northwest Territories, but this is also going to be a huge economic driver for the City of Yellowknife and the territory as a whole. It has huge potential to bring more tourists to the Northwest Territories; bring more business potential to the Yellowknife Airport and it is going to change the way the Yellowknife Airport is going to be looking in the future moving forward. That's it for my opening comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.