Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen admits the Health portfolio will be a learning experience. Goertzen was sworn in Tuesday morning as Minister of Health, Seniors and Active Living. He has also been named Government House Leader.

"My hope was that I would be able to make a difference within the government, whether that was in Cabinet or not," says Goertzen. "I'm obviously happy to be in Cabinet."

Goertzen, who served many years as Justice Critic while part of the Opposition, says the Health portfolio will be challenging, but says he's not about to back down.

"I think one of the good things about going into a portfolio maybe where you don't have years and years of being critic is that you don't necessarily think you have all the answers," says Goertzen. "And I don't believe that I have all the answers."

Goertzen says he looks forward to learning from the stakeholders he talks with as well as those working the front lines.

As Health Minister, Goertzen says he will need to find ways to recruit and retain doctors. He adds wait times are also an issue and says a task force will be working on that. Furthermore, he says there are a lot of national health issues playing out which he will need to discuss with counterparts from other provinces.

"So there is no shortage of work and no shortage of decisions that will need to be made," says Goertzen. "We'll do those in collaboration with Manitobans and try to make the best decisions for Manitoba."

According to Goertzen, problems in the health care system were not created in one day and they won't be solved in one day.

"I don't want to leave the expectation to people that there are quick fixes to a lot of the problems that we have but we have to start working in the right direction," he says. "And if we don't start working in the right direction than changes won't be made."

Meanwhile, Goertzen says he has heard from a lot of his own constituents about health care pressures. Goertzen says he has made a commitment to meet with municipal officials from the Steinbach constituency to hear their priorities.