OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government's admission that it cannot deliver the 125,000 child care spaces it promised is a betrayal of Canadian families who deserve more than broken promises from their government, said Liberal Social Development Critic Ruby Dhalla today.

"Human Resources Minister Solberg's admission that his government won't honour its child care commitment shows a complete lack of understanding of the child care needs of Canadian families," said Dr. Dhalla.

Dr. Dhalla was referring to Minister Solberg's public admission yesterday that the Conservative's election commitment may no longer materialize, blaming the provinces for their failure.

"It is shameful that the Minister would point the finger at the provinces when the only new money allocated for the creation of new child care spaces is a $250 million transfer to the provinces and territories. That's $1 billion less than what was promised to Canadians in the Liberal federal-provincial child care agreements," said Dr. Dhalla.

During last year's election the Conservatives pledged to make up for the shortfall through a plan to use tax incentives to create 125,000 new child care spaces.

But since coming to power, the Conservative government has made the biggest child care cut in Canadian history, slashing $1 billion in funding for child care services in 2007.

"The Conservative government has received failing grades from families and child care experts for its failure to deliver new child care spaces. In some Canadian cities parents are facing an average wait of two years to get a spot in regulated child care," said Dr. Dhalla.

"The Harper government's policy of handing over small amounts of money to individual parents instead of investing in a child care system, is not delivering the support young Canadian families need," she added.

"The setbacks are accumulating. Canadian parents and their families deserve better."