Meatpacking, Refugees and the Transformation of Brooks, Alberta
By
Michael Broadway
Visiting Fulbright Scholar
Department of Rural Economy
University of Alberta
Edmonton
e-mail
Michael.Broadway@ualberta.ca
Phone
780-492-4580
Brooks was a typical western prairie town in 1996. It had a population of about
10,000 souls. Its situation along the Trans-Canada Highway about 2 hours east of Calgary
made it a regional centre for surrounding agricultural communities and southeastern
Alberta’s oil and gas industry. Extensive grazing land coupled with irrigation has
transformed this western edge of Palliser’s Triangle into a prosperous ranching and
farming area and made it ideal for raising cattle. Feedlots dot the landscape; their wooden
windbreaks stick out above the flat prairie. The only hint of a possible change in Brooks
in 1996 was the presence of Lakeside Packers, a beef processor, located about three miles
northwest of the centre of town. Two years earlier Lakeside had been purchased by an
American firm who immediately announced it would increase the plant’s slaughter
capacity and add processing and rendering facilities. In all about 2,000 new employees
would have to be found to staff the new plant when it came on line.
Staffing a meatpacking plant in a rural area is difficult. Rural areas tend to have
little surplus labor- you either have a job, or you leave to find work elsewhere. And
Brooks was no different when Lakeside began recruiting for its December 1996
expansion. Total unemployment in the town amounted to just over 300 persons in April
1996 (Statistics Canada 1999). And so the company cast its net throughout southern
Alberta to include the larger population centers of Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. But high
employee turnover often exceeding 200 percent in a newly minted plant ensured this
labor supply would be quickly exhausted. The company then targeted the Maritimes and
interior British Columbia where collapses in the local resource economy produced
layoffs. Recruiting outsiders meant people would move to Brooks creating many of the
conditions associated with a “boomtown.”
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Although most rural meatpacking towns fail to meet the 15 percent annual
population growth rate required to be classified as a boomtown (Malamud 1984), the
model provides a useful means of understanding the socio-economic transformation of
packinghouse towns (Broadway 1990, 2000; Stull and Broadway 2001; Broadway and
Stull 2006). Boomtowns are common throughout western North America and are usually
associated with mining oil or coal in isolated rural areas. Typically, a company’s
recruitment efforts or word of mouth result in young adult single male workers moving to
a town. Accompanying the often welcomed population growth are increases in crime,
drug and alcohol abuse, depression, and juvenile delinquency- the so-called Gillette
Syndrome, named after a town in Wyoming which was the site of coal mine and power
plant expansion (Kohrs 1974). Rural meatpacking communities in the United States have
experienced similar social changes, but with two significant differences. First,
meatpacking wages tend to be much lower than the mining and construction sectors so
when there is a slowdown in production, workers and their families become the working
poor and are eligible for social services. Second, the industry is reliant upon a mostly
immigrant labor force for its line workers, which means communities end up providing
services to non-English speaking residents (Stull and Broadway 2004; Broadway and
Stull 2006).
Canada’s meatpackers do not have a relatively porous border with a poorer
southern neighbor from which to draw their labor force. So after scouring Canada for
workers in the first few years of the plant’s operation Lakeside looked to Canada’s
refugee population to meet its labor needs. Since 2000 about 3,500 mostly Sub-Saharan
refugees have moved to Brooks. They now account for about a quarter of the town’s
3
population, with the largest single source country being the Sudan, followed by Ethiopia
and Somalia. Within five years this “typical western prairie town” has been transformed
into an instant multicultural and multilingual community, and drawn newspaper reporters
and TV crews from across Canada by its apparent uniqueness. In 2003, The Globe and
Mail reported on “Our Town Their Town” (Anderssen 2003); two years later the National
Post led with “Alberta Hellhole or Northern Oasis?” (Soloman 2005). But beyond the
town’s sudden fame as rural Canada’s multicultural centre, social service providers
struggle to meet the unique needs of a predominantly non-native English speaking
refugee population.
This paper identifies the social and economic changes that have occurred from
1996 to the present in Brooks, and documents the unique challenges posed to a rural
community by an influx of Sub-Saharan refugees. First, the structural changes in
Canada’s meatpacking sector that are behind the reliance on an immigrant and refugee
labor force are reviewed. Then the boomtown model is outlined to create a framework
within which to analyze community change in Brooks in the second half of the paper.
Canada’s Packers
The last quarter of the twentieth century witnessed a dramatic change in the
structure and location of Canada’s meatpacking industry. Historically, cattle and hogs
were shipped by rail for slaughter in large multi-storied packing plants close to railroad
terminal sites in major Canadian metropolitan centers. An oligopoly, consisting of
Canada Packers, Burns Meats and Swift Canadian dominated the industry. Wages were
high; and beginning in 1948, were maintained by a master contract that dictated wages
and working conditions throughout the industry. In the post world war two period, per-
4
capita red meat consumption soared and the industry expanded. In the late 1970s studies
linking diets high in cholesterol to heart disease were first published and consumers
responded by reducing their beef consumption. This decline occurred at the same time
the industry was confronting an increase in US meat imports. These two factors
combined to produce an overcapacity problem, and with industry wages 10 percent
higher than US competitors, Canadian firms embarked on a cost cutting strategy. In 1984
the master contract was challenged by Burns Meats. It argued that all its plants were
losing money and demanded its workers accept a 40 percent reduction in the $11.99 base
rate1. The union insisted on retaining the industry-wide agreement. Burns filed unfair
labor practices charges against the union for bargaining in bad faith- a position that was
upheld by several provincial Labor Relations Boards. Workers responded by striking
plants in Calgary, Lethbridge, Brandon, Winnipeg and Kitchener (Forest 1989). Other
companies followed Burns’ strategy, demanding wage concessions and closing plants. In
Brooks, the UFCW struck Lakeside Packers and the plant became non-union when
replacement workers took the place of striking workers at wages 30 percent below the
union rate, a cut of $3- 3.80 an hour (Noël and Gardner 1990)
Across the US border, meatpacking was undergoing a series of cost-cutting
innovations, commonly referred to as the IBP revolution (Stull and Broadway 2004)
which would put the Canadian industry at even more of a competitive disadvantage.
IBP’s first plant in 1961 revolutionized the industry. Instead of locating it at a railroad
terminal site, it was constructed in a cattle producing region of northwestern Iowa. This
reduced the shrinkage and bruising associated with shipping cattle long distances. The
company purchased cattle directly from producers thereby eliminating the stockyard
5
middleman. The plant unlike its older facilities was a single story structure which allowed
the incorporation of a disassembly line with workers responsible for a single step in the
preparation of the carcass. This “deskilling” was then used to justify paying worker’s
lower wages. In the late 1960s the company introduced boxed beef. Instead of shipping a
carcass, it is fabricated into smaller cuts and then vacuum packed. This innovation
appealed to IBP’s customers since they would no longer have to hire their own butchers,
while removing fat and bone reduced transport costs. A 1993 study estimated the average
cost of shipping fed cattle from Alberta to Ontario at $112.50/head compared with
29.91/head for boxed beef (Canadian International Trade Tribunal 1993). This
substantial cost differential meant the end of Ontario’s beef processing industry, since it
was now cheaper to supply Canada’s largest consumer market with boxed beef from
Alberta instead of shipping cattle from the prairies and slaughtering them in southern
Ontario.
In the United States other meatpacking companies quickly emulated IBP’s
methods by taking advantage of economies of scale and constructing large slaughter
capacity plants close to supplies of fed cattle. This amounted to a rural industrialization
strategy as plants opened in small towns across the High Plains close to where cattle were
fattened. Kansas exemplifies these trends. Old plants closed in the state’s large urban
areas of Wichita and Kansas City. And new plants were constructed in Garden City,
Liberal and Dodge City in the rural southwest. These towns all had less than 20,000 souls
living in them before the packers arrived. In Canada, IBP’s cost cutting strategies were
ignored. And it was left to US based Cargill to construct a new plant in High River,
Alberta
6
Cargill was lured to Alberta by the availability of fed cattle. The province is the
centre of Canada’s cattle feeding industry with about two-thirds of the country’s fed
cattle in 2004 (Canfax 2005). In addition, the provincial government provided Cargill
with a $4 million grant for the construction of a waste-water treatment plant. Alberta
Agriculture officials justified the investment by arguing the plant would reduce the
volume of cattle shipped south to the United States for slaughter (Cybulski 1989). The
plant opened in 1989 with a non-union labor force paying wages at $3-$4 an hour less
than its competitors. Within months of its start-up Cargill’s competitors accused it of
selling beef at below market prices (Stevenson 1991). Although the charges were never
proven, the introduction of a lower cost producer had predictable results. In 1991 Canada
Packers closed all its plants in western Canada leaving Cargill and Lakeside as the
dominant players in Alberta.
Meatpacking’s low wages combine with a dangerous and unpleasant work
environment to make most jobs unattractive to Canadians. In the old plants work varied
between hog and cattle slaughter, and workers split their time between the kill floor and
processing (Novek 1989). But modern plants slaughter a single species and most line
workers now stand shoulder to shoulder making the same cuts over and over with the
result that repetitive motion injuries are commonplace (Stull and Broadway 1995). Meat
processing workers in Alberta have the highest probability of a disabling injury or disease
among all manufacturing employees in the province, with a rate more than double
manufacturing’s (Alberta Human Resources and Employment 2005). Injuries and low
pay contribute to high employee turnover. After a plant has operated for several years
turnover among line workers averages 6-8 percent a month (Stull and Broadway 1995).
7
This means about 1,800 workers leave Lakeside and must be replaced each year.
Companies must constantly recruit workers and it this effort that turns packinghouse
towns into boomtowns.
Packers and Boomtowns
Rural sociologists studying North American energy boomtowns in the 1970s
noted sudden population growth was accompanied by increases in a variety of social
disorders. Studies of Fort McMurray in northeastern Alberta documented increases in
crime rates, mental illnesses, divorce and alcohol and drug abuse (Graham Brown &
Associates 1975; Riffel 1975; Hobart et al 1979; Gartrell et al 1981). Similar findings
from U.S. communities were challenged on the basis of inadequate data and
methodological considerations (Wilkinson et al 1982), prompting a vigorous response
from supporters of the boomtown social disruption hypothesis (Finsterbusch 1982). By
the late 1980s a consensus emerged that social disruption did occur, but only in some
places, at certain time periods and among some segments of the population (Smith et al
2001)
The theoretical basis for explaining increases in social disorder is found in the
sociological literature dealing with modernization and urban disorganization (Wirth
1938). According to this perspective pre-boom communities are characterized by social
cohesion and stability. Social control and support is maintained by a “high density of
acquaintanceship” i.e. the proportion of a person’s fellow community members that are
known to a person (Freudenberg 1986). A sudden influx of persons is presumed to
reduce this number, lowering social interaction and watchfulness, while anonymity and
8
social disorder increase. Under this scenario informal social controls are replaced with
formal ones.
Social isolation has been identified as a key variable in explaining child abuse and
neglect among boomtown newcomer families. Neglectful families have fewer
relationships with formal groups and fewer informal contacts with neighbors. This lower
level of support is exacerbated by high levels of residential mobility which is endemic to
boomtowns, but which also reduces watchfulness and surveillance. These factors
combine to isolate newcomers and for some families this leads to child abuse (Camasso
& Wilkinson 1990).
A high level of transience among young adult single males is a factor behind
increases in boomtowns’ rates of substance abuse. The absence of a stable family
environment and the acceptance of drinking hard liquor as part of the frontier experience
foster an environment that encourages substance abuse. Preventing abuse is hampered by
high turnover which also facilitates drug trafficking and makes enforcement difficult
(Milkman et al 1980).
Critics of these studies note it is impossible to link the causal mechanism of
increasing population, decreasing social interaction, and increasing social disorders since
the studies occur after the boom (Krannich & Greider 1990). But despite the weak
theoretical underpinning of the boomtown model there is widespread empirical evidence
documenting social disruption with sudden population growth.
Refugees and the Context of Reception
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
9
1989). Migrants’ social class and the circumstances surrounding their decision to leave
their homeland are beyond the control of host communities. For Sub-Saharan refugees it
is worth noting their conditions of exit, since their life experiences are so different from
most Albertans. Kakuma is a refugee camp in northeastern Kenya, and is where some of
Brooks’ newcomers formerly resided. It is located in a place where “nothing” grows and
temperatures average 40 degrees C. (Aukot 2003: 74). It is home to about 100,000
refugees mostly from the Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. The Australian Minister for
Immigration and Multicultural Affairs visited the camp in 2003 and described it as
follows:
“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. 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. For their own protection against locals and other refugees, some people, mostly
women and children, are effectively imprisoned in an enclosure known as the ‘protection
area’” (Vanstone 2004).
Leaving the camp may require bribing a local official so as to obtain a passport.
Those who come to Canada from a place like Kakuma are viewed as “blessed” and are
obliged to help those left behind, which means in many instances sending money back
home (Omar 2006).
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To be eligible to come to Canada refugees must be unable to return home or stay
in the country where they have asylum, and there is no other country where they can
resettle. Once selected for Canadian resettlement, refugees undergo medical, security and
criminality screening, and then must demonstrate an ability to re-establish themselves in
Canada (Yu and Dempsey 2004).
A positive reception in the host community will facilitate newcomer adjustment
and this is determined by government policy, the attitudes of local employers and local
people, and the presence or absence of local ethnic communities. 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. But Brooks’ social service
providers have little influence over government refugee policy, nor can they influence
Lakeside’s working conditions but they can provide a positive reception by addressing
newcomers’ needs.
Brooks and Lakeside
Brooks’ motto is “beautiful and bountiful,” which reflects the transformation of
the surrounding semi-arid landscape by irrigation. The town’s population grew slowly
from a total of 499 in 1921 to 4,010 in 1971. But with the coming of the oil and gas
industry in the 1970s the town experienced its first boom and the population more than
doubled to 9,421 by 1981. The collapse of the energy sector in the 1980s stalled the
town’s growth and on the eve of its second boom in 1996 the town’s official population
stood at 9,925 with just 315 visible minorities.
Lakeside Packers would appear to be an unlikely catalyst for community change.
The firm began life in 1966 with the construction of a feedmill and feedlot just west of
11
Brooks. In the early 1970s, with the infusion of capital from Mitsubishi, a Japanese
trading company, Lakeside constructed a meatpacking plant across the Trans-Canada
Highway from its feedlot. The company specialized in supplying carcasses to other
companies for further processing. But by the early 1990s the widespread adoption of
boxed beef meant this market was disappearing and Lakeside realized it needed to add a
processing side. The company “welcomed” IBP’s purchase, recognizing that “they had
the necessary capital and expertise to make a success of producing boxed beef”
(Altwasser 2006). When the author first visited Brooks in 1996 it was clear that Lakeside
was viewed as a community success story. Its employees walked around town proudly
wearing jackets with Lakeside emblazoned on the back; all that was about to change.
Packing companies have a publicly stated policy of recruiting workers locally and
Lakeside was no different when it began hiring in fall 1999. But high turnover meant
workers were inevitably recruited from further and further afield. In January 1998 the
author picked up a Lakeside employee hitch-hiking into town from the plant. He was
from North Sydney, Nova Scotia and was the only one left out 15 people who had been
recruited to work at the plant, the rest had all returned home. But enough Maritimers
stayed to support a fish and chip shop that had moved from Marystown on
Newfoundland’s Burin Peninsula to Brooks (Sillars 1998). Today, many “Newfies”
remain in town but few are at Lakeside; they have moved into other sectors of the local
economy (field notes 1/17/06).
Lakeside’s recruitment and the accompanying population growth brought familiar
problems to this latest boomtown- including shortages of housing and day care spaces,
and rising social service demands. The use of Emergency Services at the Brooks Health
12
Centre jumped 33% between 1996 and 1997. During the same period Alberta Family and
Social Services reported a five-fold increase in the demand for supplemental income and
one time short falls related to crisis and relocation. Child welfare cases doubled and
alcohol related offenses jumped 300 percent (Howard Research & Instructional Systems
Inc. 2000). Demands for social services continue to outpace the town’s population growth
as subsequent sections will illustrate.
Beginning in 1998 it was apparent that domestic labor sources would be
insufficient to meet Lakeside’s staffing needs and they targeted immigrants. Working
with Immigrant Aid Societies recruiting videos were translated into Arabic and shown to
potential recruits at Calgary’s Catholic Immigration Society (field notes 1/5/98).
Employees in 2000 were paid a $1000 bonus for referring friends and family members
who stayed beyond a minimum period (Lakeside n.d.). This strategy is commonly used
throughout the industry (Human Rights Watch 2004); it promotes chain migration and the
emergence of immigrant enclaves in packing towns (cf. Grey and Woodrick 2002; Fink
2003) and Brooks would prove to be no different. By 2006 immigrants and refugees grew
to account for about 60 percent of Lakeside’s labor force (Altwasser 2006); and an even
higher percentage among its line workers.
Demographic Changes: The World Comes to Brooks
Lakeside from the outset recognized the importance of its immigrant labor force.
In fall 1998 they provided on-site space for Medicine Hat’s SAAMIS Immigration
Service to provide employees with assistance in filling out immigration forms, most dealt
with family reunification (field notes 9/22/98). By 2002 the demand for such services was
such that Global Friendship Immigration Center was incorporated in Brooks to meet
13
newcomer needs. Its annual reports provide a snapshot of an emerging multicultural
community. In 2003, nearly 90 percent of the Centre’s 413 clients were refugees. The
leading source countries were Sudan (199), Ethiopia (48), Pakistan (33), Somalia (30)
and Afghanistan (21). Other sub-Saharan countries represented were Burindi (4), the
Democratic Republic of Congo (8), Liberia (2), Tanzania (1), and Sierra Leone (1). Most
were secondary migrants who had moved to Brooks from elsewhere in Canada, with the
2005 third quarter report indicating nearly a third had previously resided in Winnipeg
(Global Immigration Center 2004, 2005). This diversity is a source of community pride.
Visitors to Brooks’ Eastbrook School are greeted with a world map showing the origin of
its students, the author counted 13 different countries represented on his visit to the
school in February 2006 (field notes 2/2/2006).
At the same time the town’s population was growing through immigration, the
influx of young people meant an increase in the birth rate from 17/1000 in 1996 to an
estimated 19/1000 in 20052. In absolute terms the number of babies born to women with
a Brooks’ home address during the same period went from 165 to 247 - a 50 percent
increase! The town’s experience is in marked contrast to the province which has seen its
birth rate decline from 14/1000 in 1996 to 12/1000 in 2005 (Alberta Government
Services various years; Linda Sorensen personal communication 2/6/2006).
An increasing immigrant and refugee population combined with a rising birth rate
has meant local schools have been confronted with some unique challenges. Enrollment
in Brooks’ public schools increased by just 75 students between the 1996/7 and 2005/6
academic years, but in kindergarten and first grade the impact of the baby boom is
beginning to be felt where enrollment is up sharply (Table 1). Refugee children have
14
greatly increased the demand for ESL instruction. For the Grasslands School Division,
which includes Brooks, the number of ESL students more than doubled from 138 to 303
between 1999 and 2005. They now account for 9 percent of the student body3. An
analysis by grade level indicates much higher proportions of ESL students in the early
grades (Table 2). At Brooks’ Central School, which caters to Kindergarten and first
grade, 19 percent of the students are classed as ESL, compared with just 2 percent at the
High School. A similar pattern exists in the local Catholic Schools, where ESL students
comprise 15 percent at Holy Family Academy (K thru 6th grade) and 6 percent at St.
Joseph’s Collegiate (7th thru 12th grade). An instructor at the High School summarized the
challenges for teachers:
“We have students who show up here who are illiterate in their own language, or
have missed several years of schooling from living in a refugee camp….Students are
dealing with a lot of other issues in their lives and school is probably not their highest
priority. They are adjusting to a new environment, imagine going from a hot desert
environment to Brooks in the winter. They maybe adjusting to a new family situation,
perhaps the trauma of seeing friends or relatives killed, plus they have the added pressure
of wanting to fit in with students here. Many have to work to help pay the rent, or to have
a little spending money of their own, or some may have to send money back to relatives.
That’s a lot of stuff to deal with and they do remarkably well” (field notes 1/16/2006).
At the elementary level, the challenges of teaching ESL students are considerably
lessened by the fact that all students are engaged in learning to read and write English.
Brooks’ Central School has established a Parents as Teachers program, using the Born to
Learn curriculum that promotes the active engagement of parents with their child’s
15
intellectual development. Participation is voluntary and home visits from trained staff
members begin soon after the mother and new born baby have returned home from the
hospital. Local school teachers praise the ability of this program to identify potential
learning difficulties prior to children attending elementary school.
Cultural Changes
Brooks’ 2000 civic census recorded over 50 different languages spoken in
Brooks. In 2006 this number is now estimated at over a 100 (field notes 2/2/06). The
multiplicity of languages creates obvious communication challenges. Many newcomers
lack a basic knowledge of English; some are illiterate in their own language and may
have never attended school. School officials acknowledge routine communications with
refugee parents are difficult. Sending notes home in English serves little purpose for
some. Translating them into the major refugee languages of Arabic, Dinka, Nuer (Sudan),
Amharic (Ethiopia), Somali (Somalia) and Oromo (Eritrea) and then back translating
them into English to ensure the original intent was conveyed (Stull and Broadway 2004:
128) is not a viable option, given the numbers of parents involved and the difficulty of
finding translators. Holy Family Academy uses the services of a settlement worker to
call parents with announcements and provide other information, but given the multiplicity
of languages not all parents are likely to be reached even using this method.
Providing translators seems an obvious solution for social service providers but
using a translator can also be problematic! Alberta Child and Family Service workers
who deal with child neglect, abuse, prostitution and family violence note in some
instances when a translator’s services are called for clients will refuse them, as they are
afraid word of their circumstances will spread through the community. RCMP officers
16
report similar difficulties surrounding suspect and witness statements in the course of a
criminal investigation. Added to which the translations are a potential source of dispute
in any criminal proceedings (field notes 2/14/06).
The Brooks Health Centre has attempted to address the language issue by
subscribing to U.S. based Language Line, which advertises itself “as providing fast,
accurate, confidential language interpretation in 150 languages.” But this service which
requires the patient and staff member to each wear a headset is not really suitable for
emergency situations where decisive intervention maybe called for. An Emergency Room
nurse noted patients sometimes resort to miming their symptoms, leaving nurses and
doctors to guess the ailment. She recalled one incident where a patient attempted to show
they were constipated (field notes 2/5/06).
The long term solution to these communication issues is for newcomers to learn
English and many do. The number of adults registering for ESL classes at the Adult
Learning Centre has risen from 179 in 2002 to 359 in 2005 (Whyte personal
communication 2/15/06). For those adults who lack basic literacy skills one-on-one
tutoring is available through the Adult Basic Literacy Education program administered at
Medicine Hat College. But there remain newcomer women with limited or no knowledge
of English who spend all their time at home and only go out in the company of their
husband. Attempts to lessen their isolation have focused on engaging them in a pottery
class and photography exhibit spotlighting refugee women but even these efforts are
difficult:
“Husbands are sometimes unhappy to learn about a wife’s outside activities. Last week,
for example, we had reporter from the newspaper who was going to do a story about the
17
clay class and he wanted to take a picture of the group. One of the women objected
saying her husband wouldn’t want her picture in the paper so other people could see her”
(field notes 2/15/06).
Communities are powerless to affect the refugee experience but they must deal
with its consequences. RCMP officers acknowledge some newcomer adults have been
conditioned by their refugee experience to be wary of anyone wearing a uniform, and this
group has little respect for their uniform and what it represents. Among children, school
teachers note negotiating skills and basic “manners” are not yet part of some refugee’s
social skills. Refugee children will quickly resort to fighting to obtain or protect
something, a legacy that others attribute to their camp experience where conflict for
resources was an everyday occurrence (Reynolds 2004). Limited language and social
skills led one refugee child to “pee in the corner of a classroom (field notes 2/2/06).” But
despite these and other incidents an elementary school principal emphasized:
“We spend a lot of time on character education, teaching things like honesty, respect,
negotiating skills and basic manners…We are gradually making progress” (field notes
2/2/06).
Newcomers also bring different expectations regarding service delivery. At
school, some newcomer parents expect “teachers to do everything.” The concept of a
partnership between parents and teachers in assisting children to learn is alien. This is
particularly challenging for parents who have never attended school, but most have high
expectations for their children in terms of their futures (field notes 1/16/06). In the area of
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law enforcement some newcomers would prefer to deal with infractions within the
confines of their community. According to an RCMP officer:
“We had a case of assault in the newcomer community. The victim swore out a
complaint, we collected evidence, a suspect was arrested and a court date assigned. The
next thing I knew I had some community leaders in my office requesting that the charges
be dropped saying they would take care of the matter themselves” (field notes 2/14/06).
And the Beat Goes On
Against the background of rising cultural diversity Brooks continues to
experience many of the features associated with a boomtown. Like other small towns in
rural areas Brooks is short of physicians. Population growth has only exacerbated this
trend and made scheduling routine doctors’ visits difficult so newcomers use the
Emergency Room. A nurse explained the problem this way:
“A Lakeside employee who works the B shift will come home late at night and take a
look in on their children and if one doesn’t look quite right they will take them to the ER
at 3.00am. This makes little sense from our perspective, since follow-up visits are
usually called for and the patient ends up seeing another doctor who then has to become
acquainted with the original diagnosis. And it of course overloads the E.R.” (field notes
2/5/06).
Brooks’ reported crime rate went from 131/1000 persons in 1996 to 257/1000 in
2004 (Table 3). The detachment is now the fourth busiest in the province in terms of the
number of reported crimes/officer (field notes 2/14/06). It would be overly simplistic to
attribute the rising crime rate to Lakeside’s recruitment of less educated young adult
single males, the demographic group with the highest incidence of criminal activity, since
19
this group is also attracted to work in the oil patch. But as Table 3 illustrates prior to
Lakeside’s expansion the crime rate was relatively stable.
Caseloads at Brooks’ Alberta Child and Family Services office have increased so
much since 1999 that the staff doubled from 6.5 persons to 13 in 2005. The case load at
the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, jumped from 127 patients in 1995/6 to
230 in 2004/5 which meant hiring additional counselors. Staffs in both agencies
acknowledge their increasing caseloads cannot be attributed solely to Lakeside’s
recruitment strategy but is related, in part, to the existing presence and influx of less
educated persons into Brooks. Partial support for this explanation is provided by a
comparison of 1996 and 2001 census data which shows during this period the number of
persons residing in Brooks who failed to graduate from High School increased by 745,
and their share of the population aged 15 and over increased from 41 percent to 43
percent (Statistics Canada 1999; 2004). By contrast during the same period, the
equivalent population declined from 48 to 40 percent in the nearby town of Taber (2001
population 7671), which is in line with provincial trends.
Town boosters will point to Brooks’ sustained economic growth as the upside to
increases in social disorders and demands for new social services. And they are correct.
The city approved building permits valued at close to $200 million between 1996 and
2005 (City of Brooks n.d). New construction has meant hiring even more workers.
Census data indicate between 1996 and 2001 the number of employed persons in Brooks
went up by over 1400; while labor force participation rates increased for men and women
(Statistics Canada 1999; 2004). But despite employment growth and increased labor
participation the number of persons falling below the low income cutoff increased during
20
this same period by 175; while average earnings of persons fell relative to the rest of the
province between 1996 and 2000 (Table 4). This suggests many of the other newly
created jobs in the service sector (e.g. retail, restaurants, and hotels) are relatively low
paying and part-time. This explains, in part, the continued rise in demand for Food Bank
services. The Brooks Food Bank opened its doors on October 1st 1998 and has grown
ever since. In 2002 it served 1746 adults and 1638 children, by 2005 the equivalent
figures were 2412 adults and 1595 children4. The manager is projecting a 10 percent
increase in the demand for its services in 2006 (field notes 2/14/06).
Conclusions
The role of the meatpacking industry in the transformation of small towns in the
United States has been well documented (Stull, Broadway & Griffith 1995; Stull and
Broadway 2004). In Alberta, Cargill and Lakeside employ similar labor recruitment
strategies as U.S. plants. Cargill’s facility about 30 minutes south of Calgary has meant
most of its labor force commutes to the plant, leaving High River largely unaffected by
the plant. Brooks’ situation, two hours from Calgary and an hour from Medicine Hat,
means it has borne the brunt of Lakeside’s recruitment strategy. And it shares the
familiar characteristics of a meatpacking boomtown with an explosion in jobs, rising
demands for social services, and a relative fall in income levels. But what distinguishes
Brooks from other meatpacking communities is its influx of Sub-Saharan refugees. By
comparison, packing towns in the United States are relatively homogeneous with their
South East Asian and Latino populations.
The town’s cultural diversity presents a host of challenges for social service
providers. They have responded by reallocating resources to meet newcomer needs by
21
hiring health care professionals and community liaison staff, while the province had
provided funding for ESL instructors. But the challenges are immense. Some
newcomers’ limited knowledge of English is an obstacle to day-to-day communication,
while cultural differences between the host community and newcomers create different
sets of expectations in terms of service delivery. Over time some of these barriers will be
reduced as newcomers acquire English language skills and adjust to life in Brooks. But as
with any adjustment process it will be much easier for younger persons than the old.
Cooperation among newcomers is difficult, oftentimes reflecting longstanding
rivalries that originated in Africa. Many newcomers maybe suffering from post traumatic
stress syndrome, since as one person, who works closely with the refugee population
noted,
“There is nobody in this town with the type of expertise to diagnose post traumatic
syndrome. I would have to go to Toronto or Montreal to find somebody and bring them
here and that’s not going to happen” (field notes 1/17/06).
The academic literature is rife with studies documenting the greater risk refugee
children have of developing mental health problems such as alcohol abuse, drug
addiction, delinquency, depression and post traumatic stress (Hyman 2000). And local
social service workers and RCMP worry a failure to equip newcomer children with the
necessary literacy skills will condemn them to participating in an already burgeoning
drug trade in town.
The community service grapevine is full of rumors that Lakeside, with the
complicity of the federal and provincial governments, is preparing to launch a new
invasion upon the town. In 2005 the company announced another expansion plan to
22
meet the increased slaughter demand arising from the BSE crisis. It needs to hire another
500 workers. Finding staff in Alberta’s oil-booming economy is tough, given Lakeside’s
wages and working conditions, so the company is considering the use of guest workers
who will stay for 2 years, at the end of which they will be given the option of applying
for permanent residence in Canada. The three countries mentioned as labor suppliers for
this program are China, the Philippines and Cambodia. Regardless of whether this
program is implemented, Brooks will continue to experience an influx of newcomers
through family reunification. The African community is growing; entrepreneurs have
opened African grocery stores, hairdressers, a music shop, and nightclub, and enriched
the community by their presence.
The meatpacking industry is vitally important to Alberta. Over the years the
provincial government has provided loans and grants for the industry’s expansion. At the
height of the BSE crisis in 2003 Lakeside received over $9 million from the federal
government to stabilize its workforce. But when it comes to providing funds for dealing
with the unintended consequences of Lakeside’s recruitment strategy, social service
providers have to reallocate monies from existing resources or beg from their superiors in
Edmonton. Brooks’ refugee population through no fault of its own requires specialized
services if it is to successfully adjust to life in Canada – a goal which is in everyone’s
interest. This means hiring ESL staff, community health workers, and translators among
others.
Refugees are in Brooks because of the federal government’s humanitarian refugee
policy and the availability of employment at Lakeside. They will continue to come to
Brooks through the existing immigration policy that favors family reunification and the
23
town’s social service providers will continue to struggle to find resources to meet their
needs. Current federal policy, the immigrant and settlement adaptation program, provides
support to organizations assisting newcomers, but does little to address Brooks’ unique
circumstances, since it is the province that provides the resources for hiring additional
social service personnel. Yet both levels of government are equally culpable for Brooks’
situation, the province through its promotion of the industry and the federal government
by its humanitarian refugee policy. The province has attempted to meet its obligations,
the federal government needs to meet its.
Footnotes
1
It is worth noting the relative decline of meatpacking wages; in January 2000 the starting
wage at Lakeside was $9.25 an hour, nearly $3 an hour less than the base rate back in
1984.
2
No census has been taken in Brooks since 2001. The birth rate is calculated on an
estimated population of 12,800 provided by the City Manager.
3
Data on ESL numbers by individual school were unavailable. But in discussing these
data with Grassland School Division Administrators they stated that most ESL students
resided in Brooks.
4
Changing managers at the Food Bank has meant changing systems in the way records
are kept. In the late 1990s records refer to the number of families served, while later
records refer to the numbers of adults and children served which make comparisons
impossible. I have elected to use comparable date for the longest time period.
24
25
Table 1
Brooks’ Public Schools1 Grade Structure 1996/7 vs. 2005/6 Academic Years
Grade
K
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
1996/7
153
177
191
187
177
195
202
192
212
182
200
197
223
2005/6
222
229
173
179
180
190
190
190
184
185
224
194
223
Difference
+69
+52
-18
-8
+3
-5
-12
-2
-28
+3
-24
-3
0
Total
2488
2563
+75
The schools are as follows: Brooks High, St. Joseph’s Collegiate, Brooks Junior High,
Eastbrook, Griffin Park, Central and Holy Family Academy.
1
Source: Alberta Education n.d. Statistics and Publications
http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/pubstats/StatRes.asp (accessed 3/6/06)
26
Table 2
Grasslands School Division Percentage of ESL Students by Selected Grade Level
2005
Grade
K
1
2
3
4
5
6
9
12
Percentage
19
20
17
17
13
14
10
3
2
Source: Grasslands School Division, Brooks, AB
27
Table 3
Brooks Reported Crimes 1995-2004
Year
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Crime rate/1000 persons
130
131
130
185
211
180
232
210
233
257
Source: RCMP Brooks Detachment
28
Crime/officer
102
103
109
156
177
161
192
174
193
213
Table 4
Brooks’ & Alberta Average Earnings of Persons with Reported Income 1996 & 2000
Year
1996
2000
Brooks
$27,217
$30,461
Alberta
$26,138
$32,603
Brooks % of AB
104
93
Sources: Statistics Canada. 1999. Profile of Census Divisions and Subdivisions in
Alberta. Catalogue No. 95-190-XPB. Ottawa.
Statistics Canada. 2004. Profile of Census Divisions and Subdivisions in Alberta.
Catalogue No. 95-223-XPB. Ottawa.
29
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