An arbitrator has sided with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) ruling that the rent the mental health hospital and research facility pays to the landlord of its College Street location be based on its value as an institution.

Its landlord, Brookfield Asset Management, had notified CAMH during a lease renewal process that it had valued the land at $100 million based on the highest possible use, and would increase the institution’s rent considerably. However, the arbitrator, Ken Stroud, pegged the institutional value at $55 million.

Much was at stake in the arbitration. CAMH would not have been able to afford such a significant increase in rent, threatening the institution’s ability to deliver critical medical care. Its College Street location is home to the province’s only 24-hour mental health emergency department, which treated 9,000 people last year, up from 3,500 just five years ago.

Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina), who organized a petition to support CAMH, suggested the City of Toronto would not support any application to change the site’s zoning, and accused Brookfield of acting in bad faith. Several neighbouring residents’ associations — including the Grange Community, Huron-Sussex, and Harbord Village — also actively opposed the facility’s potential displacement due to a crippling rent increase.

—Corrina King and Brian Burchell/Gleaner News