A friend forwarded this article ‘Changing face of Canada ‘Cowboy City’ about my home town, Brooks Alberta recently. Due to the packing plant, the town has undergone a dramatic ethnic shift – as refugees from Africa flock to the town to build a new life.

About 10 years ago, the company started hiring new immigrants and refugees who had recently arrived in Canada.

Alberta’s oil patch with its high salaries had enticed locals away and the plant could not find enough Canadian workers.

Word spread across the country that newcomers could get a job quickly at the meat processing plant in Brooks without speaking English or having any specific skills and that starting pay would generally be $13 an hour (£7).

Immigrants and refugees have come to Brooks because jobs are available

The job attracted many immigrants and refugees from Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South America who had left their country for a better life in Canada.

"People know (it) doesn’t matter what your language, doesn’t matter where you’re from in the world – you show up tomorrow and you can go to work at Lakeside Packers," said Brooks Mayor Martin Shields.

The article is right, it was a cowboy town when I grew up there. There were minorities, but no one every thought about it. My brother’s best friend’s parents were from India, our buddy’s parents were Chinese and owned a local restaurant and one of my best female friends in high school was born in India. But we never thought about it. Race never came into it, as it was an integrated society and everyone was just who they were. In all of my time there, I cannot think of a single race incident.

When I returned there a few years ago for my 20th high school reunion, I was shocked by the undertone that race was sending through conversations. The ‘preppy bar’ that I knew from my youth was now the ‘Somali bar that you can’t go near or you will be knifed’, and I heard more than one racial slur. I was shocked.

The town has a lot of change ahead. As the article quotes:

"They go to that wonderful mural of the four cowboys and they see our western heritage and they picture themselves on a horse being a cowboy," she said.

Jackie pointed out that this was not the first time Brooks has experienced an influx of immigrants.

"The cowboys that came in the early days were either English or Scottish and then we had an influx of Hungarians," she said.

"The new immigrants will be the next phase of our heritage."

It was a great place to grow up, I hope that it finds its balance again.