The Ontario government has had a few initiatives to push smart thermostats and my area just had our water meters upgraded to smart ones. I know nothing about the water meters, but I block the Google telemetry from my Nest Thermostat (unrelated to the gov't program) via my pi-hole at least. By definition, if you sign on to the Enbridge thermostat initiative you are agreeing to send your usage. Not really sure of the impacts of this article on Canada, but pretty chilling nonetheless!