Property owners living on country residential properties will be bearing the brunt of tax increases this year, members of city council heard Monday evening.

At their weekly meeting, council members heard while the city will be boosting its rates by the two per cent rate decided in previous budgets, actual increases will not be level across the board.

During the meeting, Coun. Doug Graham said he felt it was important country residential property owners should be aware they will be paying more.

'Country residential shouldn't expect a two per cent increase because it's going to be higher.

'The average increase has really increased for country residential,' he said.

According to Ray Goruick, the city's finance manager, country residential properties will see an average tax increase of 7.3 per cent and single-family residences will see an average increase of 1.3 per cent.

Owners of multi-family dwellings, Goruick said, will actually be paying less in taxes this year.

Multi-family dwellings including duplexes, triplexes and quadriplexes will see an average decrease in their tax rate of three per cent.

'There's definitely an impact on country residential,' Goruick said in an interview Tuesday.

The rise in tax rates above the two per cent approved by council, he added, was due to increases in property assessments calculated by the Yukon government's tax assessment office.

'The assessment represents (property) values and, in theory, an ability to pay.

'I don't know from the average whether it has to do with improvements (or land values),' he said.

According to documents tabled at council, the average tax levy has risen by $126 since 2002.

The documents state in 2002, the average value of land improvements was $80,910 and $38,240 for land for an total average value of $119,150.

The average tax levy in 2002 was $1,429.

For 2006, the average value of land improvements was $84,140 and $47,280 for the land itself.

This year, the average tax levy will be $1,555.

In a December interview, Goruick said the city would be rolling back rates by 5.5 per cent, to take into account average assessment increase, before tacking on the two per cent tax hike.

'In general terms, the plan is to reduce the mill rate by an amount, on average, equivalent to the amount of reassessment in percentage terms less the two per cent that council ... is increas(ing) the rate.'

The average assessment increase, Goruick said in December, was 5.5 per cent.

So come tax time, he said, Whitehorse property owners will see their rates rolled back by 5.5 per cent before the two per cent rate hike is added to Whitehorsians' tax bills.

'We're going to take off the value of the reassessment and add two per cent,' he said.

Goruick said the rate increase will bring an extra $685,000 into the city's coffers, on top of the $19.2 million the city collected in property taxes in 2005.

Goruick said $500,000 of the extra cash will go toward the operation of the Canada Games Centre, with the remainder going toward cost of living increases, including fuel, materials and labour costs.

According to the YTG taxation office, contacted in December, property assessments in Whitehorse rose across the board.

According to property assessment calculations, comprised of the various zoning categories, property values rose by an average of eight per cent.

Residential property totals were up an average of 10 per cent, non-residential properties were up an average of three per cent and residential land values were up an average of 14 per cent.

In an interview this morning, Gerry Gerein, YTG's property assessment and taxation manager, said he didn't have a breakdown of the different types of residential properties, but country residential homes did, on average, see a larger assessment increase than other types of properties.

'Country residential properties did go up more than other properties,' he said.

Providing examples, he said MacPherson and Wolf Creek, representing the average increase for country residential properties, each went up 13 per cent.

In contrast, Porter Creek properties went up an average of nine per cent and downtown properties, on average, did not increase.

The Logan subdivision, however, represents a break from the norm with an increase in the average assessment of 17 per cent.

Gerein said the increase in assessments city-wide were market-driven.

In December, Whitehorse resident Roger Rondeau said he was unhappy with the increase in his tax rates because it was well above the advertised two per cent hike.

With a property assessment increase of 25 per cent, Rondeau is set to pay a 21.5 per cent boost in his taxes after the city's rollback.

'We were under the impression that we were in for a two per cent hike in taxes ... the city has blind-sided ratepayers,' Rondeau said.

Fellow Whitehorse resident Bill Barnie said he agreed.

'I have a lot of concern about the taxes today, and I've said all along that my taxes have gone up 54 per cent since 2000. Most people don't notice it because they pay it through their mortgage,' he said in January.

Barnie said he would like some clarity in the municipal budget because he's concerned certain sections of it may be inflated to pay for the costs of the Canada Games Centre.

'Are they padding the budget to pay for recreation? I think that's what they're going to do,' he said.