During the 1980s RayGun / Lying Brian depression Computing Canada published articles about the Alternate Reality of Gold Collar IT employment everywhere in Canada except the GTA. One article made some snide comments about if you are unemployed in IT in the GTA you must either be a poser with no real skill / ability, or tied to a negative equity home mortgage situation and unable to relocate because you could not sell your home in the GTA.

When times are tough process improvement and automation are more important than ever. A lot of government clerks ended up with no job because of 1980s IT projects such as BC Online, while improving availability (~24 x 7) and turn around. Some lawyers would keep ringing the teletype bell trying to speed up response time before BC Online, prompting government clerks to ****list them, or to make Company & Corporate position title entries such as "Chief Jerk". My aunt told BC Tel ops to be nicer to customers, a computer could replace them. That happened.