Penticton encampment residents must leave by Friday under a court order

Fairview encampment, Penticton

The roughly dozen people living at the Fairview encampment have until noon Friday to leave the site, after the B.C. government won an injunction on Monday.

The ruling

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Breanna Hardwick ruled the site, on Ministry of Transportation land between Highway 97 and Ellis Creek, is a significant and ongoing public safety risk and unsuitable for outdoor sheltering. Several fires have burned there in recent months.

“This doesn’t solve the problem, it just moves the problem.”

— Julius Bloomfield, Penticton’s outgoing mayor

The mayor says the city’s one shelter is completely full and he suspects the other has no room. One resident says she will not leave unless she is arrested.