A rookie MLA is describing his first few months in office as a whirlwind experience. Progressive Conservative Derek Johnson was elected as the Interlake MLA is the spring election, beating out incumbent Tom Nevakshonoff. Now that his first legislative session is under his belt, Johnson says it wasn't a much different experience than that what he'd expected.

"It was sort of what I expected. As I mentioned I had a little bit of experience with RM Council for four years, so the processes are kind of the same, but a little bit different. It was very good."

His time as a councillor also has him excited for some of the upcoming projects. Johnson was a councillor in the RM of St. Laurent during the flood of 2011, and serves as the Legislative Assistant to Infrastructure Minister Blaine Pedersen. He notes with the government moving forward with the creation of an additional outlet on Lake Manitoba, he's looking forward to to the future.

"It's very exciting. The flood of 2011 really did a lot of harm around Lake Manitoba, Lake St. Martin, and the river systems. This should help alleviate a lot of that."

Johnson says there's also a sense of pride to be a part of the government that's finally moving this flood mitigation project forward.

Now the legislature isn't sitting, Johnson says he wants to spend time in his constituency. He notes after a busy few months and the release of the 2016 budget he's excited to spend some time in Interlake meeting with constituents around the region.