Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen says he truly enjoyed his first Sitting of the Manitoba Legislature as a member of the party in power. Goertzen, who is the Health Minister, says he enjoyed answering opposition questions instead of being the one on the asking side. He adds it also allowed him to focus a lot of attention on his portfolio.

"It was a great session in that way, in terms of getting further into my portfolio. I'm certainly feeling more comfortable with the portfolio now than I would have been a few days after the election. I also enjoyed getting to work with a great new group of MLAs."

Goertzen says all his years in opposition helped to anticipate and prepare for the type of questions he faced in the Assembly.

"It certainly is a different perspective. I'm glad to be on the government side and, you know, there are not always easy decisions. I never believed, even when we were in opposition, that the previous government had easy decisions to make. I disagreed with a lot of the decisions, but government is often about making difficult decisions. But you try to make the right decisions today that will also benefit generations in the future."

Goertzen says one of the Progressive Conservative Government's achievements during the sitting was to have Manitoba join the New West Partnership, a trade agreement among the western provinces. On a personal level, he was also pleased to appoint new, smaller boards for regional health authorities and to work together with his counterparts from across the country to develop a strategy to reduce the number of people dying from opioid overdoses.

Goertzen won't be getting much time off even though the sitting is over.

"My days don't really change much. As the Minister of Health, I'll be here until, probably, the 24th of December like most other Manitobans who are doing their jobs. I'll be in my office until just before Christmas and then I look forward to spending a little bit of time with my family. That is important as well, of course."