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On Monday's live stream, David Menzies and Sheila Gunn Reid examined how a decade of temporary foreign workers and mass immigration has transformed Brooks, Alta., a meat-packing town between Calgary and Medicine Hat.

Sheila pointed to a post by National Post columnist Jamie Sarkonak citing 2021 census data, which found that nearly half of Brooks identifies as a visible minority and 36 per cent of residents were born outside Canada.

According to Sarkonak, the change has been so dramatic that the local public school district declared Eid a holiday in 2022.

Check out the demographics of Brooks, AB, since 2001. The transformation has been so extreme that its school district made Eid a holiday in 2022. You can't let "immigration has benefitted my community" turn into "I don't recognize my community anymore. https://t.co/8DvBEbNzpM pic.twitter.com/aqzXPQ3xVA

— Jamie Sarkonak (@sarkonakj) October 4, 2026

Brooks, home to roughly 15,000 people according to the 2021 census, is anchored by the JBS Canada beef-processing plant, formerly Lakeside Packers, one of the largest facilities of its kind in the country. The plant has for decades drawn workers from across Alberta and, increasingly, from abroad through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

"Instead of just paying more money at the meat-packing plant to attract people ... they attracted temporary foreign workers and now they've basically switched the demographics of the entire town," said Sheila.

Statistics Canada data show the share of immigrants and visible minorities in Brooks has climbed steadily since 2001, outpacing most other small Alberta municipalities.

Sheila noted that a local resident she met while distributing Alberta's Choice lawn signs told her overcrowded housing has left the census undercounting the population, straining schools, the hospital and police.

"If this can happen in Brooks, it can happen anywhere," she said.

Immigration is among the issues being debated ahead of Alberta's Oct. 19 referendum, with questions touching on the province's role in setting immigration policy within its borders.