TORONTO - The father of a 10-month-old baby with severe cerebral palsy said Wednesday that he's worried he'll have to give up his daughter unless the government removes a cap denying her the funding she's entitled to.

"It's not a big chunk of money but it makes a big difference in terms of being able to keep her at home," said Rev. Matt Gallinger, a United Church minister from Ottawa.

"Our concern is that without enough financial support we won't be able to keep her at home."

His daughter Daria must be fed through a tube and has a host of care requirements that qualify her family to receive support through the government's special services at home program.

But Gallinger said the program hasn't received any new government funding in the last two budgets -- and he and his wife have been told no new people are being allowed in.

"They've said that it's purely economic, which, on an economic basis, is just stupid," said Gallinger, who travelled with Daria to the Ontario legislature to plead his case.

Gallinger wants to keep his daughter at home, but he is worried that without help he'll be forced to give her up to the Children's Aid Society so she can receive proper care.

"If we give her up, the government has to care for her and it will cost the government a quarter million dollars a year," he said.

"The special services at home fund is $10,000 maximum per year."

Daria cannot be left alone, leaving Gallinger with little time to spend with his older daughter, who is five, maintain housework or spend any time as a family.

"When she's sleeping she's generally a little stable, but she doesn't sleep terribly well, so there's only about five hours at night between the last feed of the day and the first feed of the morning, and that's the time I get to sleep," he said.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who raised the case in the legislature, said the Liberals have made a "shameful political decision" to quietly stop funding additional families and children with disabilities and should lift the cap on care allowances.

"The government acknowledges and recognizes that this is a program that's necessary and that's needed and yet they refuse to put the dollars into the program to help people access the care that they need," Horwath said.

Minister of Community and Social Services Madeleine Meilleur dodged questions in the legislature about whether she will remove the cap, saying only that the government has provided special services at home to more than 27,000 families this year.

She was not available for further comment.