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Faculty of Graduate Studies

Adeeb Noorani

  • BA (University of Victoria, 2022)
Notice of the Final Oral Examination for the Degree of Master of Public Administration

Topic

Governing Non-Market Housing: A Cross-National Comparison Between Saanich and Frederiksberg

School of Public Administration

Date & location

  • Monday, August 10, 2026
  • 9:00 A.M.
  • Virtual Defence

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

  • Dr. Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria (Supervisor)
  • Dr. Kimberly Speers, School of Public Administration, UVic (Member)

External Examiner

  • Dr. Deborah Curran, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria

Chair of Oral Examination

  • Dr. Jamie Lawson, Department of Political Science, UVic

Abstract

Local governments in Canada face pressure to expand non-market housing supply while operating within institutional and financial conditions primarily shaped by provincial governments. This study examined how a comparison with Frederiksberg’s non-market housing governance could highlight new insights into Saanich’s capacity to govern and deliver non-market housing through non-profit societies.

A qualitative comparative case study was conducted using document analysis across both cases and semi-structured interviews with four Saanich housing actors. The study applied an integrated framework drawing on Urban Governance Theory and Urban Regime Theory, operationalized through three analytical variables: institutional structures, strategic actions, and coalition dynamics.

The comparison revealed that Saanich developed governance capacity through regulatory instruments, facilitative relationships with non-profit housing societies, and political commitment from Council. That capacity was primarily locally constructed and dependent on continued local political commitment rather than formally prescribed institutional mechanisms. Capital funding remained concentrated at the senior government level, strategic tools depended primarily on Council priorities, and coordination between Saanich and non-profit housing societies relied on local initiative. These conditions were revealed as products of institutional design rather than inevitable features of local non-market housing governance, showing that Saanich’s governance activities substituted for functions that Frederiksberg’s governance system prescribed directly to its local government.

The study found that compounding governance conditions extended into the local delivery ecosystem. Saanich’s own prior regulatory choices contributed to those conditions, suggesting that local governance actors can both inherit and generate them. The comparison also surfaced a 4 distinction between actors whose resources shape non-market housing delivery conditions and actors whose resources determine whether delivery can proceed at all. These findings contribute a case-specific account of how fragmented intergovernmental relationships manifest within a local context. They also propose that local non-market housing governance capacity assessments benefit from a comparative dimension. For policymakers and practitioners, the findings suggest that local governments and their delivery partners are better served when their governance relationship reflects the external conditions both must navigate but neither fully control.

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