I’m Geoff Salomons.
I’m a policy professional, researcher, and climate and energy advisor based in Victoria, BC.
By day I work at Natural Resources Canada, where I collaborate on strategic analysis and policy advice on Canada’s evolving relationship with the United States. I also serve as Program Chair for the Victoria regional chapter of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada.
That’s the formal version. The fuller story is a little harder to fit on a business card.
The Path
My career hasn’t followed a straight line — and I’ve stopped apologizing for that.
I hold a PhD in Political Science from the University of Alberta and a Master of Divinity from the Vancouver School of Theology. Before that, an MA from UBC. Growing up, my family moved frequently enough that “hometown” was always a trick question. I’ve spent most of my professional life in the space between disciplines, institutions, and categories — and I’ve come to see that not as a liability, but as the source of whatever usefulness I have.
At VST, I was part of a cohort of students officially classified as “Others” — those not pursuing ordination. It was an accurate label. I’ve occupied versions of that category ever since: a federal public servant who publishes academic work, a political scientist with a theology degree, a remote employee in Victoria working on national policy files. An adult ADHD diagnosis later in life helped explain some of the winding, and connected me to a community of neurodivergent professionals who think in patterns others miss.
I share this not as biography for its own sake, but because the path is the methodology. Unconventional thinking comes from unconventional experience. The ability to reframe a problem — to shift the lens before reaching for a solution — is something you cultivate by never quite fitting the existing frame.
The Research
My doctoral research offers a clean example of what I mean.
The governance of Alberta’s resource wealth is a topic usually discussed in narrow terms: Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the Heritage Fund, save versus spend. I found a different entry point by asking a prior question — who, exactly, are we governing this wealth for?
That question revealed two distinct populations that policy rarely distinguishes between:
The distinction seems simple. Its implications are not. Saving in a fund primarily benefits future residents. Immediate transfers — dividends, tax relief — primarily benefit future descendants. Most policy debates collapse these two groups into one, which is why they so often talk past each other. Separating them opens up new pathways and reveals what’s actually at stake.
That’s the kind of thinking I bring to climate and energy work: not a predetermined answer, but a willingness to reframe the question until the real problem becomes visible.
The Mission
The clean energy transition is the defining governance challenge of our time. It is not only a technical problem — it is a systems problem, an institutional problem, and a political problem. It requires people who can move between the seminar room and the situation room, between rigorous analysis and practical advice.
That’s what M+G Advisory is for. I work with organizations navigating the complexity of the energy transition — helping them think clearly about long-term challenges, understand the systems they’re operating within, and develop strategy grounded in both evidence and values.
- Big-picture thinking grounded in research and policy experience
- Systems-level insight into how institutions and ideas interact
- Strategic support to help organizations advance their clean energy goals