The corridor is a 32-kilometre-long, narrow strip of land following Highway 2 from Hay River to Enterprise. It was annexed by the town of Hay River in 1991 and falls within municipal boundaries.

Hay River town manager Charlie Scarborough says the new rate will have the biggest effect on two commercial properties. "One is a 100-sow barn pork operation and the other is a chicken coup with 100,000 birds," he says.

There are between 40 to 80 properties in the corridor area.

And the mill rate for the corridor is proposed to go up again next year, says Scarborough, "because it was artificially low to start with for years."

The reason it was low was due to rates set by the territorial Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, he says. "The mill rate charged in the past (for the corridor area) was less than the cost of the service," he adds.

Property tax bills were mailed out in June, says Scarborough.

A five-year agreement between the town of Hay River and the GNWT ended Dec. 31, 1996. It determined assessment rates for the corridor area when it was annexed, Scarborough explained.

Evellyn Coleman, president of the Territorial Farmers Association, says the new mill rate is too high and so are proposed future increases.

Coleman believes agricultural land should have a special assessment of its own or a special agricultural mill rate. And she is looking to other jurisdictions for information on how they assess agricultural lands. "Alberta has a rate set on the amount of cleared land per acre," she says.

Her association plans to write to the town and MACA about the assessed rates and she's hoping the town will "back us up."

Coleman is a member of a committee meeting later this month to address concerns about the mill rate for residential and commercial corridor property owners.

Darm Crook is the president of the Corridor Association. He says a meeting is planned for the second week in July and then that committee would meet with the town in August to finalize where the taxes are going to go.

"Obviously it's a humungous hike," he says of the new corridor mill rate.

Crook says he believes the increase is out of line with the services received by corridor residents. "We only want to pay for services we are receiving," he adds.

"There are no playgrounds for children in Delancey Estates or Paradise Gardens," he says. And there's no clean-up like there is in town, he adds. Coleman says there are other inequities as well, such as lower water rates and garbage-delivery services for in-town residents.

"We don't mind the inequities, so long as we don't have to pay for them," says Crook.

Crook says some progress has already been made this year, but not enough.

"The town was to monitor costs incurred due to annexation of the corridor into the town boundaries, but the town never did monitor the costs," he says.

But Scarborough says the costs are kept for the town, they just weren't broken down for the corridor and they weren't discussed with the corridor association. They could be broken down if necessary, he added.

Crook says, the way he understood it, changes to the mill rate were to be phased in gradually.