Capital Daily for Thursday, July 9

The Canadian women's national basketball team returns to Victoria this month to face the UCLA Bruins, fresh off the school's first NCAA championship in the modern era. The game lands July 22 at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, and it doubles as the team's second training camp on the road to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

UCLA arrives having beaten South Carolina 79-51 for the title. Canada sits seventh in the 2026 FIBA rankings, just behind Belgium and Spain, with the United States on top.

The timing matters. In August, Canada heads to Guadalajara for an Olympic pre-qualifying tournament, grouped with Mexico, the Philippines and Senegal. A strong showing against a champion college side is the kind of test that tells the staff where the roster stands. Watch for Kayla Alexander, who broke the rebounding record at this year's FIBA Women's AmeriCup.

It's been a good week for local bragging rights beyond the hardwood. Travel + Leisure readers named Vancouver Island Canada's best island for a third straight year, and the Fairmont Empress took top city hotel in the country for the second year running.

Saanich staff figure about 500 short-term rental operators worked the district this year. The catch: short-term rentals are currently banned in Saanich, and have been for decades, since before Airbnb existed.

Council voted unanimously Monday to fix the gap between the rule and reality. Residents will be able to rent their homes for up to 120 nights a year, a trial that gets reviewed after two years. The current ban stays put until staff draft the new bylaws, with licence applications expected to open in January.

Getting to 120 took months of arguing about whether loosening the rules would eat into the long-term rental market. A 91-night limit failed on a tie last month. Council floated 160 on Monday before settling lower, over the objections of four councillors who wanted more nights, and one who wanted fewer.

Coun. Zac de Vries, who proposed the number, pointed to a zero per cent vacancy rate for three-bedroom units. Coun. Teale Phelps Bondaroff wanted a stricter cap, citing McGill research on affordability. The two-year review is the compromise nobody quite loves.

The same night, council green-lit a 58-unit townhome complex near the Gorge Waterway, seven years after Abstract Developments first pitched a six-storey, 164-home apartment on the site. Neighbours who were, in Coun. Judy Brownoff's words, "up in arms" over the original came around to the smaller version.