November 18, 1898 - April 29,1988
Isidore Charles “Toby” Nollet was one of Saskatchewan’s premier agriculturalists during the post-World War II era. He was born on November 18, 1898, in Sentinel Butte, North Dakota. He spent the early part of his life in America, attending St. Benedict’s Academy and St. Thomas Military College in Minnesota before joining the American Expeditionary Force during the First World War as a non-commissioned officer. Upon his return from overseas service, he moved to Western Canada with his father, first settling in Kelowna British Columbia before ultimately settling in Freemont Saskatchewan in 1921, where he established a fair-sized ranching operation of Aberdeen Angus cattle. Eventually he sold this ranch to a group of neighbours, who together formed the Neilburg Co-operative Grazing Association.
During his time in Freemont, Nollet began to develop an acute interest in the running of community affairs, and he eventually took on an active role himself. He became reeve of the Rural Municipality of Hillsdale and held the position for three terms. He also involved himself in larger affairs of a provincial scope, joining various cooperatives that were working towards the relief of Saskatchewan farmers. He joined the United Farmers of Canada, a radical farm group born in Saskatchewan that was advocating for a ‘one-hundred percent wheat pool’ (in which the government would market all grain) at the time. He served as a member of various cooperatives, including the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, which was to help farmers get a decent price for wheat. Additionally, he helped to organize the Canadian Cooperative Implements Limited in 1940, which provided farmers with an alternate source of new and innovative farm equipment in order to reduce farm production costs and enhance profit.
Nollet also embarked on a long and fruitful political career. He would use his agricultural experience to develop better programs to better the situation of Saskatchewan farmers. In 1944 he was elected a member of the provincial Legislature, representing the Cut Knife Constituency for the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation. He served as Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly until 1946, when he was elected Minister of Agriculture.
During Nollet’s time in office he introduced several important innovations. Under his guidance, the Land Branch and the Conservation and Development Branch were established. The Conservation and Development Branch was developed with the goal of providing engineering services to deal with soil and water services, flood control, irrigation, and reclamation. For example, in 1952, the Branch initiated a Soil Survey that was to survey the land between Kennedy Creek and the Eastern border, which ultimately determined that the Lower Saskatchewan valley was a potentially viable source of arable land. Additionally, he had community pastures set up throughout the province to accommodate vast herds of cattle. An Earned Assistance Policy was also introduced that would initiate hundreds of erosion control projects, plant thousands of miles of field shelterbelts, and organize more than one-hundred community grazing associations. In the 1960s he added the Family Farm Implement Branch and a crop insurance program to his department.
One of the larger initiatives that was launched during Nollet’s time in office was the South Saskatchewan River Project in 1958, which was to construct a dam on the South Saskatchewan River. This was a project that he ardently supported. The project required an agreement between the provincial and federal governments which would outline how the dam would be planned, constructed and financed; they ultimately agreed to whereby they would split the costs of the dam. Ultimately the dam, named the Gardiner Dam, which was one of the largest earthfill dams in the world and compounded the Diefenbaker Lake, was completed in 1967.
Nollet retired from politics in 1967. He had served eighteen unbroken years as the Minister of Agriculture, longer than any other in the province’s history. In recognition of his numerous contributions to agriculture, he was inducted into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1975. He died in Kelowna British Columbia on April 29, 1988.