Can it be true? (en francais)

Please, someone tell me that this isn't true. Sue-Ann Levy's articles on the Toronto budget process are invaluable, but if this is really true I'll just have to sit down and cry. Not much else I can do in the short term.

Budget board game gives City Hall a dubious monopoly
By SUE-ANN LEVY

For those of us who've wondered if budgeting is all a game and tax dollars mere Monopoly money to the socialists who run City Hall , we've now got our proof.

It's called the "Balance the Budget" board game -- a simulation exercise created by the same city budget brains who can't seem to balance Toronto's very real $7.6-billion operating budget.

According to a letter from city finance communications manager Cindy Bromley that was delivered to councillors with the prototype board game, the exercise is "meant to engage residents" in the 2007 budget discussions and to "educate participants on the city's current financial health."