You can't make this up

The Ministry of Truth reports — and it's way too late for April Fool's:

Delegation From China Visiting Metro
April 15, 2009

Some senior Chinese planners and government officials are visiting the province this week. They want to learn about Canadian policies that involve public participation with urban planning. The cities of St. John's and Mount Pearl are hosting the visitors, and Susan Sherk of AMEC Earth and Environmental says they are focused on things like how smaller communities plan to use land, decide on lot sizes, and even how we go about collecting garbage. Sherk says the Chinese officials are looking to Newfoundland and Labrador as more like a university campus or laboratory, where that can work very closely with people here, something they wouldn't be able to do elsewhere. Sherk says what they are mainly interested in is the fact that we engage the public so much in our decision making.