Manitoba Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen is upbeat about the Progressive Conservatives' first 100 days in office, a mark they reached last week. The Steinbach MLA says the government got to work quickly and delivered a difficult budget in a short time frame and ran a solid opening sitting of the Legislature. Despite having a pretty good idea of what he was getting into by accepting the appointment as Health Minister, Goertzen says there have been some surprises.

"The volume of work is certainly a little bit of a surprise. One day you can deal with some extremely large budgetary issues and then other days you're dealing with administrative issues. It's a large department with a lot of staff so, sometimes, a large part of the day involves human resource issues, some days it is dealing with capital or labour issues and then, of course, there are medical issues. So just the breadth of information, the volume of information can sometimes be a little staggering."

Goertzen says, as expected, he is working very long hours but is being mindful of the importance of family time to keep his work in perspective.

"The hours are significant and I knew that they would be. I went into it with my eyes wide open but certainly, with a family, that's a challenge and my wife Kim and I have spent a lot of time talking about, how do we set parameters around that and making sure that the family is working well because every Health Minister that I have talked to has told me that is a challenge and that is a difficulty. It's important for me to try to be a good Health Minister but it's more important for me to be a good dad and a good husband. That's a challenge but, I think, one we're managing so far."

Goertzen says during the first 100 days in government, he has realized once more that the wheels of government turn more slowly than he would like them to.

"Sometimes there's a good reason for that. I understand there needs to be due diligence, that every decision you make in government, certainly every significant decision, impacts hundreds, sometimes thousands of people, sometimes all Manitobans. And, you don't want to enter those decisions quickly and without full consultation and a good thought process around that. So, ya, it can be frustrating that the government works slowly. But, I think, sometimes there's a reason why that happens as well."

Goertzen says he spends one day every weekend at the office to get caught up on work. He also clears his schedule every Friday morning to spend time in the constituency to make sure he stays connected with the people who elected him.