Meatpacking, Refugees and the
Transformation of Brooks, Alberta
By
Michael Broadway
Visiting Fulbright Scholar
Department of Rural Economy
University of Alberta
Purpose
• To explain the restructuring of
Canada’s meatpacking industry and
discuss the consequences of this
process for Brooks, Alberta.
Overview
• Restructuring and the Meatpacking
Industry
• Boomtowns and Meatpacking
• Brooks
• Brooks and its Newcomers
• Challenges to Service Provision
• Conclusions
Restructuring and Meatpacking
• Cattle were raised on the prairies and
shipped by rail to stockyard locations.
• Meatpackers purchased cattle at the
stockyards.
• Cattle were slaughtered in multispecies plants.
• Most major Canadian cities had plants.
Restructuring and Meatpacking
• Industry controlled by an oligopoly,
Canada Packers, Burns Meats and
Swift Canadian.
• In 1948 a union master contract was
established that set industry wide pay
and working conditions.
• By the early 1960s industry wages were
above the average for Canadian
industry.
Restructuring and Meatpacking
• In the post World War Two period the
industry expanded, hired more people.
• By late 1970s – red meat consumption
began to decline.
• The industry had an overcapacity
problem.
• Solution cut costs- reduce wages/close
plants.
Restructuring and Meatpacking
• In 1984 the Master Contract was
challenged by Burns Meats.
• At Lakeside striking workers were
replaced with workers at $3.00 - $3.80
an hour less.
• Other plants shut down.
Canada Packers Plant, St Boniface
Restructuring and Meatpacking
• IBP revolution south of border
associated with a series of cost cutting
innovations.
• Locating plants close to where cattle
are raised.
• Adoption of disassembly line.
• Construction of large slaughter
capacity single species plants.
IBP plant, Denison, Iowa
Restructuring and Meatpacking
• Refused to abide by terms of master
contract.
• Developed boxed beef.
• Carcasses were fabricated into smaller
portions and vacuum packed- fat and
bone removed at the plant.
• Combined effect of innovations to shift
plants from urban to rural areas.
Restructuring and Meatpacking
• In Canada old packing companies
ignored the IBP revolution.
• Cargill in late 1980s opened its High
River plant- produced boxed beef.
• Received funding from the provincial
government.
• Initially its labour force was non-union.
• Lower cost producer led to more plant
closures.
Ontario Stockyards
Canada Packers’ Smokestack, Edmonton
Canada Packers Smokestack Edmonton
Restructuring and Meatpacking
• Relatively low paying, physically
demanding jobs with a high injury rate
have a limited appeal.
• Little surplus labour in rural areas.
• Initial plant start-up labour turnover
200%.
Restructuring and Meatpacking
• High turnover rate- 6-8% a month for
line workers after a plant is established.
• So where do the workers come from?
• Solution: recruit immigrants from the
developing world to staff plants.
Boomtowns and Meatpacking
• Boomtown model developed by
studying western energy boomtowns in
the 1970s.
• “Gillette syndrome” sudden & rapid
population growth produced a host of
adverse social impacts (Kohrs 1974).
• Theoretical basis for model is found in
studies of social disorganization and
urbanization (Wirth 1938).
Boomtowns and Meatpacking
• Pre-boom communities are
characterized by stability and social
cohesiveness.
• Social control is maintained by a “high
density of acquaintanceship.”
• Sudden influx of population is
presumed to disrupt this pattern.
Boomtowns and Meatpacking
• Social interaction and watchfulness are
reduced, contributing to a rise in social
disorganization and formal controls
replace informal control.
• Critics charge that boomtown studies
fail to link the causal mechanism of
population growth reducing social
interaction – since the studies occur
after the boom!
Boomtowns and Meatpacking
• But despite the “weak” theoretical
underpinning of the model- plenty of
evidence for the phenomenon
(Finsterbusch 1982).
• Camasso & Wilkinson (1990) found
evidence linking newcomer social
isolation and child abuse in a
boomtown.
Boomtowns and Meatpacking
• Broadway and Stull (2006) argue that
small meatpacking towns represent a
new kind of boomtown.
• The worst of both worlds- challenges of
rapid population growth and increasing
social disorders brought about labour
recruitment plus increasing demand for
social services as a result of a low
wage economy.
Brooks
• Town is a regional service centre for
agriculture and oil and gas sectors.
• Irrigation has transformed the semi-arid
landscape.
• Lakeside started out with a feedlot 3
miles west of town in 1966.
• Brooks 1971 population 4,010
Brooks
• 1970s- the town’s first boom- energy
related- population doubles during the
decade to reach 9,421 in 1981.
• Lakeside adds a packing plant in the
early 1970s – it specializes in
production of carcasses.
• 1981- 1996 town’s population increases
by just 700 persons.
Brooks
• 1994 Lakeside purchased by IBP- and
IBP immediately announced expansion
plans.
• Addition of a boxed beef plant and a
second shift will mean hiring about
2,000 more employees.
• 1996 unemployment in Brooks = 310.
• Where will the employees come from?
Brooks and its Newcomers
• Initial recruitment in southern Alberta,
then the Maritimes and interior BC.
• Sudden influx of population leads to
boomtown problems- housing
shortages, increase in rents.
• Recruitment of young adult, less
educated, single males leads to familiar
social problems.
Brooks and its Newcomers
• Some resentment towards newcomers.
• By 1998 Calgary Catholic Immigration
Society involved in placing immigrants
at the plant.
• Lakeside allows SAAMIS Immigration
Society to have an office at the plantmost of the paperwork deals with
family reunification.
Brooks and its Newcomers
• In 2000 Lakeside paid a $1000 bonus to
employees who recruited a friend or
family member to work at the plant for a
minimum period.
• Result chain migration and
establishment of newcomer enclaves.
Brooks and its Newcomers
• 2003 Global Friendship Immigration
Society data indicate 90% of clients are
refugees- leading source countries
Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
• Influx of young people leads to a baby
boom.
• Brooks birth rate 17/1000 in 199619/1000 (Alberta 14/1000 12/1000).
Brooks and its Newcomers
• Baby boom is now beginning to be felt
in schools- enrollment in K & first
grade up 111 students between 1996 &
2005 school years.
• 2000 civic census indicated 53 different
languages and dialects spoken in
Brooks- today the number is estimated
at over a 100.
• 2006 estimated 25% of population are
of refugee origin.
Challenges to Service Providers
• Immigrant assimilation is a function of
migrants’ social class, their conditions
of exit, and the context of reception
provided by host communities (Portes
and Böröcz 1989).
• Communities can’t do much about the
first two items but they can provide a
positive context of reception.
Kakuma Refugee Camp
“The heat in the evening, which only
drops to around 30 degrees, heats up
the tin-roofed shelters ‘like an oven’, and
the three open walls and others with flax
roofing does little to stop the elements,
which includes flooding in the rainy
season.
People sleep on thin straw mats on
concrete floors and share pit toilets.
Kakuma Refugee Camp
Their lives can be in great danger. Local
people are often antagonistic towards the
refugees and there are conflicts between
groups within the camp. There is a high
incidence of sexual abuse and a
prevalence of AK47 rifles.”
Source: Senator Amanda Vanstone, Australian Minister for
Immigration & Multicultural Affairs
Challenges to Service Providers
• Employment at Lakeside offers an
immediate solution to finding that first
job in Canada since it doesn’t require
any preexisting job skills or knowledge
of English.
• Challenge for service providers to meet
the needs of non-native English
speaking population some of whom are
illiterate in their own language.
Challenges to Service Providers
• Education- Language issue- ESL
solution. Numbers increased from 138
in 1999 to 303 in 2005.
• Biggest impact is in the early gradesabout 18% of students in K-first grade
are ESL.
• High School – 3%.
Challenges to Service Providers
• Brooks Central School (K- 1)- Born to
Learn program.
• High School a different set of
challenges.
• Language difficulty or learning
disability?
Challenges to Service Providers
• Health care- communication issues.
• Brooks is short of doctors, difficult to
get an appointment- so people resort to
using the Emergency Room.
• How do you provide services to people
who speak Arabic, Dinka, Nuer (Sudan),
Amharic (Ethiopia), Somali (Somalia)
and Oromo (Eritrea)?
Challenges to Service Providers
• Communication – use a translator!
• Language line used at the hospital.
• Some people don’t want to use a
translator they fear that word of their
problem/issue will spread among the
community.
• Long term solution- people will learn
English.
Challenges to Service Providers
• Cultural differences- differences in
expectations regarding service delivery
in schools and law enforcement.
• Role of women- isolation issue.
Challenges to Service Providers
• Against this background, the town is
dealing with boomtown issues.
• The reported crime rate in Brooks
almost doubled between 1996 & 2004
from 131/1000 to 257/1000.
• Caseloads at Alberta Child Family
Services doubled between 1999 and
2005- AADAC similar story.
Challenges to Service Providers
• Economically- the town/city approved
new construction worth $200 million
from 1996 to 2005.
• Comparison of 1996 & 2001 census
data indicate- employment up, labour
force participation up, unemployment
down- and a relative decline in income
levels from 104% to 93% of AB average.
Challenges for Service Providers
• Brooks Food Bank established in
October 1998 – demand for its services
continues to grow at a rate of about 8
percent a year. Last year it distributed
over 280,000 lbs of food.
Conclusions
• Brooks shares all the characteristics of
a rural meatpacking boomtown.
• But is unique in its multicultural
character.
• Service providers have responded to
challenges by hiring additional staff,
ESL instructors, health care liaison
workers and others.
Conclusions
• The town will continue to grow, more
refugees will continue to arrive in
Brooks.
• Some of the problems identified will
over time be solved as people adjust to
life in Brooks and learn English.
Lakeside Packers, September 1996
Lakeside Packers, January 2006
Conclusions: Policy Implications
• Refugees are there because of
Lakeside and Canadian government’s
humanitarian refugee policy.
• Refugees have unique needs and
require more services.
• Responsibility for providing the
services rests with the province.
• The federal government’s role in
assisting the province with Brooks is
limited.
Conclusions: The Future
• Refugee children are at greater risk of
developing mental health problems
such as alcohol abuse, drug addiction,
delinquency, depression and post
traumatic stress (Hyman 2000).
• What kind of future will we provide for
this next generation of Canadians?