Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen is hoping for a different atmosphere in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly as a new Session begins Monday afternoon. Goertzen, who is Government House Leader and the Minister of Health, Seniors and Active Living, wants to see more respect among members of all parties.

"My hope is that there will be a change in the tone of the House overall. I certainly hope to bring my own tone, to be respectful, respectful of the questions that are asked by the opposition. I know what it's like to ask questions and certainly my commitment is to do the best to answer the questions or to get the answers to the questions and to be respectful of those who are asking the questions because I know they are doing it on behalf of their constituents or other Manitobans and they have a job to do as well."

Goertzen says, even though it is only one month since the Progressive Conservatives were elected to form government, we can expect some new initiatives in the Throne Speech while other commitments will happen over the longer term.

"There certainly will be some initiatives. We talked in the election about a number of things related to a number of different departments. Some of those will be talked about over the course of the mandate and they weren't directed to be done immediately. But there are going to be some things that the Premier talked about being done relatively quickly. So you'll see some of those initiatives as a fulfillment of election promises."

Goertzen says after being in Opposition for so many years, it has been quite different preparing for this Session of the Legislature with many briefings and discussions about things happening in his department day to day and also looking forward to the future.