The global financial crisis in 2008 came after decades of reducing the capacity of the public sector and deregulating financial markets. When it happened, governments recognized the role of public sector spending in boosting demand and creating jobs. The 2009 and 2010 Canadian budgets focused on tax cuts, and most spending commitments lasted only two years. For climate change, there was some support for clean infrastructure and the ecoEnergy retrofit program to improve energy efficiency. In the US, by comparison, renewable energy and energy efficiency investments were 8 times higher on a per capita basis.

The global retreat from government investment started after a February 2010 G7 meeting in Iqaluit. Afterwards, policy-makers relied on low-interest rate monetary policies to spur economic activity, which ended up re-inflating speculative bubbles in sectors such as real estate. This chiefly benefitted wealthy asset holders while a sputtering real economy could only offer insecure part-time and precarious work to many.

Clean energy sectors experienced a boom and then a bust. The ecoEnergy retrofit program was cancelled in 2010, which made it difficult for energy efficiency implementers to regain the trust of consumers and contractors.