OTTAWA– Prime Minister Stephen Harper is suspending Parliament until March 3, when it will reopen with a new speech from the throne setting out the Conservative government's next agenda.

Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman in the Prime Minister's Office, indicated that Harper spoke with Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean by telephone and she agreed to the suspension.

The day after the next session of Parliament begins in March, the government will table its 2010 budget, Soudas told the media in a hastily-arranged telephone press conference. Harper did not speak to the media about the decision to schedule a new session of Parliament.

Soudas said that, with the recession easing, now "is the time to engage with constituents, stakeholders and businesses in order to listen to Canadians, identify priorities and to set the next stage of our agenda."

He said in March the government will move forward with the economic plan it outlined in the 2009 budget, which calls for a continuation of spending in 2010 to stimulate the economy.

But Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will also use the March budget to talk about how the government plans to turn off the federal spending tap after 2010 in hopes of rebalancing Ottawa's books. The deficit for the 2009-10 fiscal year is expected to hit a record $56 billion.

The government is also suspending Parliament because national attention will be largely focused on the Vancouver Olympics in February and to give Harper an opportunity to appoint more Conservative Senators to give his party more clout in the upper chamber. By filling all five open seats with Conservatives, the party would outnumber Liberals in the Senate, curbing Liberal Senator's ability to delay government legislation.

Most pending legislation will die with the prorogation, and Parliamentary committees are disbanded.

Soudas denied the Conservatives are closing down Parliament to keep the House of Commons foreign affairs committee from continuing its high-profile investigation of allegations that the government kept handing Afghan prisoners over to Afghan authorities even though Canadian officials were aware of the risk of the prisoners being tortured.

Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale called the move "a shocking insult to democracy."

And NDP Leader Jack Layton accused Harper of trying to avoid accountability on climate change, pension reform and Afghanistan.

"You've got a serious democratic deficit in addition to a whopping economic deficit," he told The Canadian Press.

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With files from The Canadian Press

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