The Conversations You Have Are Monitored

I had dinner recently with a very well-placed member of the Ontario Legislative Security force.  Over a lovely glass of wine (or three) he surreptitiously divulged a little-known policy of the Ontario Public Service:  we record all our employees' telephone conversations!
 
I was shocked and dismayed.  Shocked because I didn't realize we were in the practice of expending so much effort on things with very little gain (or at least I think there is).  Dismayed because of the potential for those tapes to be used for purposes other than security.
 
He said that the tapes were only kept for two weeks at a time, and that they only are played back in situations of terrorism.  This is cold comfort to me probably since I am a pretty paranoid person.  I can totally foresee a time where an employee is fired for using the telephone to make a call to their bank during business hours.  Anyhow, I think I am safe for now as long as I don't kiddingly mutter death threats, or release my secret plan to take over the government.
 
Still.  I guess I am just used to the harmlessness of government work.  Maybe that's the point?  We need to safeguard ourselves in situations when the employees themselves get careless?  Would spies infiltrate our organizations to gain access to confidential information?  My question:  Why would they?  It's too easy and mind-numbingly boring to do civil servant work to get information.  It's a whole lot sexier just to hack into top-secret server farms and extract confidential gold that way.
 
I think my strep-induced fever is taking over.  I've sounding more like a John Le Carre novel.