Key developments:

• Judge said trial will last longer than expected

• Defence continued questioning witness No.2 about Senate procurement policies

 BEHIND SCHEDULE

Justice Charles Vaillancourt confirmed Wednesday what many have already been guessing -- the trial likely won’t wrap up in the allotted 41 days.

“I don’t see us completing our task in the assigned number of days,” he told court in the morning.

The trial is scheduled to break from May 13 to May 31, and then return and wrap up by June 19. But it could now extend into the fall election campaign, or possibly end just before the writ is dropped.

The trial was originally scheduled to run until June 19, while one of the Crown prosecutors deals with pre-trial responsibilities in another case.

It's Day 7. Only two witnesses have taken the stand so far and the Crown has been complaining about what it called tedious and repetitive questions from Duffy’s lawyer, Donald Bayne.

MORE POLICY QUESTIONS

Once again, Bayne questioned Senate human resources officer Sonia Makhlouf about procurement policies in the upper chamber. A new policy adopted in 2011, which did not affect the contract Duffy awarded to his friend Gerald Donohue, made it clear for the first time that such contracts must be in place.

Bayne once again suggested that the system Duffy used to award $65,000 worth of contracts to Donohue was confusing and inconsistent. He has argued that Duffy did nothing wrong.

Makhlouf testified that she doesn't recall Senate finance or human resources having done any oversight on Donohue contracts with Duffy.

The court also heard that the Senate's human resources department gave Duffy advice on how to pay Donohue even though the contract was set up after the work had been done.

MEET THE PRESS

Justice Charles Vaillancourt met with the press after court adjourned for the day. He was asked about the trial taking more than the allotted 41 days, and said it was up the lawyers.

"I don’t know how long it’s going to take because I don’t control the number of witnesses, or how long it takes with each witness," Vaillancourt said. "So we’ll just have to wait and see.

The case, he said, is a priority for him. Vaillancourt is based in Toronto and has been assigned to the court in Ottawa for this case, depending on when court administrators schedule him.

"Definitely. They can always rearrange my schedule in Toronto and then I’ll come up here and deal with the case here."

With files from Philip Ling, CTV Ottawa Bureau