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Canadians don't need a government weather app. According to the government's own research, they don't even want one.

We've got thousands of weather apps already—accurate, fast, free, and pre-installed. The Weather Network. AccuWeather. MyRadar. People trust them. They use them. They move on.

But not Ottawa.

No—Ottawa had to build its own app: WeatherCan. Launched in 2019 by then–Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, who breathlessly called it "super cool."

What didn't she mention? It was quietly scooping personal data from over 715,000 Canadians. The device model, app version, email address, and anything you typed into the feedback box was all hoovered up by the feds.

And to analyze that data? They handed $199,901.25 of your money to Telus. Not to build the app, but to dig through your info.

This wasn't about forecasts. It was about surveillance. And if that sounds familiar, it should.

Because during COVID, the same government secretly harvested cellphone location data from 33 million Canadians, tracking movement under the excuse of "public health." No warning. No consent. Just mass digital surveillance.

And now, we find out their weather app was doing the same thing in miniature. No wonder Canadians want nothing to do with it.

Internal polling, first reported by Blacklock's—buried deep in an Environment Canada focus group report—shows most people use private apps instead. They want better features. More accuracy. And most of all, they don't want the government tracking them.

Public prefers private forecasts over @EnvironmentCa says in-house research. Focus groups follow 2022 disclosure that feds scooped data on 716,000 users who downloaded gov't weather app.  https://t.co/9eLyP9Izaa @juliedabrusin pic.twitter.com/pTCiDKVbvu

— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) June 9, 2025

Can you blame them?

This wasn't a weather service. It was a Trojan horse. A taxpayer-funded spyware project masquerading as a forecast tool.

Just like ArriveCAN. Just like the carbon rebate portal. Just like every other "convenient" federal tech project with a Terms of Service longer than the Constitution.

This is the future they're building—not efficient, not accurate, not helpful. Surveilled, controlled, tracked, and paid for by you. It's a digital creep show. 

Because WeatherCan wasn't about weather. It was about watching you. And Canadians are finally waking up to the forecast.

It's not sunny in Ottawa. It's surveillance, with a 100% chance of overreach.