I especially like the part where someone actually thinks they will be able to force tenured faculty to only use books available from whatever broker they hire to supply the electronic textbooks. Or that faculty would actually get their book orders in early enough for said broker to license content that it doesn't already. It's difficult enough with the traditional model to get the faculty to order the books early enough to actually have the books shipped in from the publisher or distributor before classes begin. I can only imagine the argument between a professor and the broker representative when the professor demands on the Friday before classes that they have the book available to the students by Monday. The book from a publisher that the broker doesn't currently license content from and may not be able to get, at all, much less by Monday.

Well, mentioning that is was CAD not USD might have tipped people off that the amount(s) would be higher than they would expect for the US. Besides the insurance, $100/tank for gas is pretty expensive in the US right now, unless you own some enormous crap-mobile. I haven't been in Canada for a while, but I know when I lived in New York, I could count on the gas in Ontario being about twice as expensive. I hardly know anyone in Toronto who owns a car, whereas I actually know people in NYC who do, as insane as that is.