During his years as a political broadcasting journalist, Mike Duffy didn’t think Canada’s senate chambers were a beehive of activity.

But since he was appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Stephen Harper six months ago, Duffy said his viewpoint has changed considerably.

“To be fair, I didn’t really cover the Senate that much,” Duffy said.

“But once you get in there, you realize that every piece of legislation passed by Parliament has to go through the senate prior to adoption.

“And the Senate rules are different than the House of Commons. Senate committees can’t sit while the Senate is in session, so that puts you in the situation of having some pretty long days.”

Duffy is in Kelowna this weekend to speak at a public forum Saturday at The Grand, starting at 1 p.m.

Duffy said the popular perception that senators don’t have to work very hard isn’t accurate from his vantage point.

“The retirement home thing is out there, but that’s not true for those who work at it, and most senators do work,” Duffy said.

“Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are 12-hour days and people are flying in or out on Mondays and Fridays.”

“It’s a lot more active than I ever thought it was.”

Duffy’s initial focus as a senator has been Canada’s forest industry, which is particularly relevant to B.C.’s economic fortunes.

Duffy sits on the senate committee on forestry that has been listening to presentations from forest industry representatives.

“The federal government has set aside one billion dollars to assist the forest industry to get back on its feet, but of course that has to be handled carefully so as not to be seen by the Americans as a subsidy to the industry, so they don’t slap a countervailing duty on our lumber exports to the U.S., the lovely folks that they are.”

What he has heard so far tells Duffy that the forest industry has a future.

What is needed right now, he said, was for the recession cycle to end, particularly in the U.S, which is Canada lumber producers’ best customer.

“I think we are positioned now to come out on the other side even better than we were in our forest industry,” Duffy said.

“The experts are figuring that a year from now, (the economy) will be better than it is today.”

He said one positive step is a $10 million initiative for the Canadian Forestry Institute to develop teaching tools for architecture students about constructing buildings out of wood.

“One thing we’ve learned is our architecture schools don’t teach students about the wonders of wood. In Scandinavian countries, they build 10-storey office buildings out of wood. Here in Canada, we still rely on concrete, steel and brick,” he said.

Using more wood in construction, he said, is an example of the need to “think outside the box.”

He cited one example of providing value-added products from our timber resource, rather than just exporting raw lumber.

“Developers in the U.S. building large-scale residential developments are interested in the idea of us sending them finished wall panels, flooring and that sort of thing in secured containers,” he said.

“That cuts down on construction site theft and speeds up the building time because more elements are prefabricated rather than being build from scratch with raw lumber.”

bgerding@kelownacapnews.com