Saskatchewan's former Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart has lost his battle with cancer.
The 73-year-old served six terms as MLA for the former Thunder Creek consistency now known as the Morse-Lumsden riding from 1999 to 2023.
He was one of the 25 Sask Party MLAs to be elected in their first election as a party in 1999.
Premier Scott Moe shared on social media that Lyle's quiet strength and dedication to the people he served were an example to all of us who served with him.
Lyle also served as Agriculture Minister in former Premier Brad Wall's cabinet from 2012 to 2018 when he stepped aside due to health concerns.
Brad Wall remembers him as a good friend and a straight shooter, that he could count on for honest, principled advice noting he was an important voice at the cabinet table.
"Lyle, was a very consequential Agriculture Minister for Saskatchewan and maybe one of the most consequential ministers of Agriculture we've ever had. It was under Lyle's leadership that we saw very important expansions and improvements to crop insurance. Lyle did a great job negotiating with the federal government on the Federal-Provincial agricultural programs that we have, the suite of programs that so many producers use and value."
He noted that Lyle Stewart was excellent on behalf of producers in that regard, negotiating and working on those programs.
"Those are really important farm gate issues, things like risk mitigation and those programs, but on the trade front, Lyle was tireless. He travelled often to countries, especially in Asia, and India to try to protect markets that our producers have in those places, but also to open up new markets and to grow our trade with those areas. So on both fronts, on the farm gate side of things and on the trade agricultural trade side of things he was just great."
Wall noted he lived and breathed agriculture and always had the producers in mind.
"There wasn't a producer meeting too small or too far away that if he could at, he would do that. Listening and getting input from farmers and ranchers. You know, on that point, Lyle had a background in agriculture on both the crop side, and the ranching side."
He added that it was under Lyle, for example, that we saw livestock price insurance be made available for Saskatchewan and so he had both sides of agriculture well covered with very valuable personal experience and knowledge.
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