It's definitely less expensive. That's also related to the way subjects are taught because, if teachers decide that children are going to read articles, for example, rather than read an entire book, that's something else. They prepare course packs. That encourages one way of addressing a book without it really involving a book as you describe it, as in Europe, for example.
As I previously said, a book, in Europe especially, but also in Quebec, is a cultural element, I believe, more than in the English-speaking world. It's virtually impossible to imagine a book fair such as Montreal's Salon du livre in Toronto. That's virtually unthinkable. People visit the Salon du livre de Montréal with their families. The same is true in Mexico. People go to the book fair with their families. It's different in Toronto.