An appeal for more time is at the heart of a plea by operators of a daycare that was ordered to leave OPP General Headquarters early next year.

“We are in an emergency situation,” said Lucille Desjardins, director of Treasure Island Daycare Centre.

The non-profit operation in late September was given until Jan. 31 to vacate the premises, following a security review of the Memorial Avenue building.

A local developer has since offered to construct a 10,000-square-foot building to house the daycare, but cannot complete the job until late June.

Desjardins said her volunteer board is seeking an extension of the current lease for the interim.

“This will facilitate a smooth transition to our new location and avoid a daycare crisis in this community,” she wrote Energy and Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman.

The letter was also distributed to Youth and Child Services Minister Deborah Matthews, Premier Dalton McGuinty and others.

“I haven’t heard back from (either) one of them,” she said.

The unnamed developer would build the facility and lease it to the daycare to cover the estimated $1.5 million in construction costs, she added.

Were the province to provide the necessary capital funding, the daycare would pay solely for utilities, maintenance, taxes, and insurance, she said.

Retrofitting an existing location – even if one were available – was deemed too costly.

“I need that (lease) extension,” Desjardins added.

The daycare employs a staff of 20 and serves the children of OPP employees and members of the community at large.

More than 100 families are currently registered and another 100 are on a waiting list.

The 6,000-square-foot space was built and paid for by the provincial government a dozen years ago.

OPP spokesperson Sgt. Pierre Chamberland said he was unaware of police ever having received a threat against General Headquarters, which recently benefited from security enhancements outside the front entrance.

“It is no secret that over the past several years, (government) buildings have been subjected to security reviews, and General Headquarters is no different,” he added.

Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop is lobbying on the daycare’s behalf, arguing that the government has an obligation to assist financially with its relocation.

Many of the children attending the daycare have special needs and should not be made to move twice, Desjardins added.

“That transition can be very difficult for them,” she added.