Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Friday that his government will table one of the biggest and most comprehensive budgets in history.

The budget, scheduled for the end of this month, will deal with "not just economic challenges, but economic opportunities," Harper said at a press conference in Montreal.

The Conservative government barely avoided a defeat in December, after Harper sought a parliamentary suspension just ahead of an opposition motion to bring the government down over its economic policies.

Harper has since promised to consider the opposition's positions in shaping the budget, which the opposition parties have demanded to contain a comprehensive stimulus package.

On Friday, Harper repeated that he hopes to cooperate with the opposition.

"We'll take big, comprehensive actions," he said while cautioning the budget may result in deficit.

"We're working under the assumption this is going to be a tough time ... We'll assume that we'll probably have to look at a period of three to five years of such action."

Earlier on Friday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said this year's federal budget will have a "substantial deficit" to deal with the effects of the "synchronized global recession."

Leader of the biggest opposition party, the Liberal Party, Michael Ignatieff said on Friday he will wait and see what the budget is before deciding whether to support it.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2009)