All posts by Hayley Chazan

Tenants in Somerset and Rideau-Vanier pestered by need for major repairs

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By: Hayley Chazan

Delaney moved to 290 Frank Street in downtown Ottawa last September where she faced a steady stream of pressing repairs.
Delaney Hoeppner moved to 290 Frank Street in downtown Ottawa last September, where she faced a steady stream of pressing repairs. / © Google Maps

When 21-year-old Ottawa student Delaney Hoeppner moved into an apartment last September, she was excited about living on her own for the first time.

Hoeppner rented a basement unit of a house in downtown Ottawa. The rent was cheap, and the unit big.

While it seemed like the perfect first apartment for a student or young professional, the initial excitement soon wore off.

According to an analysis of Statistics Canada’s 2011 National Household Survey, the Rideau-Vanier and Somerset wards have the highest number of private residences per capita requiring major repairs in Ottawa. Renters are more at risk than homeowners to require major repairs to their dwellings.

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The Rideau-Vanier and Somerset wards have the most private dwellings per capita requiring major repairs. / © ArcGIS online.  Click the link to see the map online: http://carleton-u.maps.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=d3cfca4c55914791a386146d1fc9437c

Statistics Canada defines major repairs as dwellings with defective plumbing or wiring and dwellings needing structural repairs to doors, walls, floors and ceilings.

In Hoeppner’s case, it started with minor problems like poor water pressure in the bathroom sink. But as time went on, the repairs became more pressing.

Last winter, a problem arose with the front door that kept it from shutting completely for over two weeks.

“The apartment was freezing,” said Hoeppner.

When she finally summoned the courage to approach her landlord, she was met with resistance.

Ethienne Saint-Pierre, Executive Director of Action Logement, an organization that promotes affordable housing, said that Rideau-Vanier and Somerset wards require the most major repairs because there are a lot of small-time landlords there who can’t afford to do the work.

Nathaniel Mullin, a caseworker for Rideau-Vanier councillor Mathieu Fleury, who personally fields constituent complaints, said that while his office tries to avoid getting involved in disputes, they’ll occasionally act as a mediator if the landlord has a history of repair violations. Mullin said most of the repair problems stem from the fact that many structures are over 100 years old.

While the age of apartments in Ottawa place renters at a disadvantage, tenants also face other challenges when it comes to carrying out repairs.

The Residential Tenancies Act governs rental housing in Ontario. Landlords are responsible for maintaining and repairing rented residences. This means that renters, unlike homeowners, are unable to perform the repairs themselves and must wait for the landlord.


Tenants often end up in disputes with their landlords while attempting to address major repairs, according to Charles McDonald, Ottawa Centre’s Community Legal Services’ Executive Director.

McDonald said that if a landlord fails to perform the repairs within a reasonable timeframe, the tenant can register a complaint with the city. According to an analysis of the city’s 311 data, Rideau-Vanier and Somerset had the highest of number of complaints related to property and building codes in September 2015.

Following an inspection, the City may issue an “Order to Comply”. Failure to comply can result in the work being contracted out at the landlord’s expense or the granting of a rent reduction while the repairs remain outstanding.


This process can be lengthy, said McDonald, and it can persist longer if the landlord contests the decision.

Jean Lash, a lawyer with South Ottawa Community Legal Services, said that because of the stress that can arise out of the process, many tenants don’t confront their landlords.

“Tenants are afraid to start a conflict out of fear they’ll get evicted,” said Lash.

Nathaniel Mullin from councillor Fleury’s office said that this fear is part of the problem. He said there’s a lack of knowledge about tenant’s rights and many conflict situations could be avoided if tenants were aware of the landlord’s obligations.

Mullin said that every year, his office works with Ottawa U to provide students with information on the rules surrounding the landlord-tenant relationship.

While Delaney Hoeppner’s door was eventually fixed, the steady string of repairs during her tenancy was too much to handle.

“I saw out my one-year lease but moved home shortly after.”

Parking infractions plague University of Ottawa campus

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By: Hayley Chazan

Students at the University of Ottawa say an epidemic of parking tickets on campus may be caused by high parkings costs and a shortage of spaces. Source: University of Ottawa website
Students at the University of Ottawa say an epidemic of parking tickets on campus may be caused by high parkings costs and a shortage of spaces.
Source: University of Ottawa website

Recent University of Ottawa graduate Dahlia Seligman says she discovered a way to avoid paying, what she says, are the campus’ exorbitant parking costs – she simply parked illegally.

“When I tallied the cost of my multiple parking tickets at the end of each school year; I was really happy to see that I had still paid significantly less than I would have if I had purchased a parking permit from the university,” she said.

This may explain, in part, an epidemic of parking tickets plaguing the University of Ottawa campus.

According to an analysis of parking ticket data obtained from the City of Ottawa through a freedom of information request, the university has issued over 30,000 parking tickets since 2012 amounting to almost $2 million in fines. Unauthorized parking on private property, which includes a variety of infractions such as expired meters and the failure to display a permit, was the most common reason people were ticketed. Twenty percent of the infractions over the last four years occurred at an outdoor parking lot on 90 University Road, directly adjacent to the school’s residences.


The grounds surrounding the University of Ottawa are considered by the city to be private property. This means that the university is responsible for overseeing all campus parking lots and garages. The patrol officers are also in charge of establishing regulations and ensuring that they are respected.

Francine Faubert, Customer Service Manager of the Parking and Sustainable Transportation Division at the University of Ottawa, leads a team of eight enforcement officers along with a few part-time students, who patrol the campus’ lots and garages seven days a week. All patrol officers are deputized by the City of Ottawa and are able to issue City of Ottawa parking tickets on university property.

At Ottawa U, parking comes at a cost. Those who drive to campus daily often purchase a monthly or annual parking permit. The cost of a permit for the academic year varies depending on whether students opt to park in a lot outdoors or in one of the indoor garages. An outdoor permit valid from September to April costs $766, while an indoor parking garage permit for the same time frame costs $1,137. Eight of Ottawa U’s 14 parking lots are specifically reserved for permit holders only.

For occasional visitors, temporary parking can be purchased for $4.50 per hour at the remaining six lots that have “pay and display” machines.

The University of Ottawa has 14 parking lots on its main campus. The purples polygons are indoor parking garages. The green ones are outdoor parking lots. 
Source: University of Ottawa website

Khizer Pervez, a University of Ottawa graduate, said that for many students on a tight budget, purchasing a parking permit is simply too expensive. To make matters worse, he said that the campus parking lots reserved for visitors are almost always full.

As a result, he  said he would normally park on the side streets surrounding campus that offered one to three hours of free parking.

“The good thing about this is that if you only have one class, you can normally go without paying,” he said. “The downside is that these spots also tend to get busy, and you have to plan to arrive at least a half hour before your class so you can have enough time to find a space.”

Faubert claims that this is not the case.

“There is no lack of parking space on campus and everyone who applies for a parking permit is offered parking,” she said.

But some students say that this is not enough. Seligman believes that until the university makes it affordable for students to park, and until they create enough spots, people will continue to park illegally.

Canada’s capital city a trouble spot for petty theft

Data Assignment One_2015
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Credit: Mel Hein Caption: Mel Hein’s green bike was stolen last September from outside her café, “Good Eats” in downtown Ottawa
Credit: Mel Hein
Caption: Mel Hein’s green bike was stolen last September from outside her café, “Good Eats” in downtown Ottawa

Ottawa café owner Mel Hein was devastated when her distinct green bike was stolen from outside her restaurant in September of 2014.

“The bike was a gift from my husband, so it held a lot of sentimental value,” she said.

According to an analysis of Statistics Canada crime data from 2010 to 2014, the rate of total small time theft in Ottawa was nearly 13 per cent greater than rates in Ontario, suggesting that Ottawa is a trouble spot for petty theft.

Small time theft consists of all theft under $5,000, including theft from a motor vehicle and theft obtained through shoplifting.

According to University of Ottawa criminology professor Ronald Melcher, the most troubling part about petty theft is that more than 80 per cent of cases go unsolved. Melcher said that small time theft has some of the lowest conviction rates of all crime categories.

Vanier Community Police Centre Const. Jacques Carriere said that in Ottawa, the most common items thieves target are bikes and cell phones.

He said that the sharp increase of electronic theft, in particular, in Ottawa in recent years prompted police to issue an Internet public service campaign to educate residents on how to avoid becoming a victim of this type of crime.

The police’s main message? Be aware of your surroundings and be mindful of displaying electronic devices. If a theft does occur, police say it’s better not to resist attackers, as this could lead to serious injury.

This kind of advice could have served Westboro resident, Dylan Hanley, well. In 2012, a year that saw small time theft rates in Ottawa outweigh theft rates in Ontario by more than 20 per cent, Hanley’s cell phone was stolen by an unidentified male brandishing a bottle in the Byward Market.

“I hit him, we struggled, and he eventually threw me into the road, at which point I dropped my phone and he took off with it,” said Hanley.

Irvin Waller, a criminology professor at the University of Ottawa, said cases like Hanley and Hein’s don’t surprise him.

“Ottawa is an affluent city with easily transportable and saleable goods such as bikes and cell phones,” said Waller. “These items are very attractive to thieves looking to make a quick buck.”

Waller also said that one of the key reasons theft rates are so high in Ottawa compared to the rest of the province is that Canada’s capital city has not invested in proven strategies that reduce theft or more serious common crimes. Waller said these strategies involve diagnosing the problem and investing in preventative solutions in schools and communities.

However, while the data suggests that Ottawa is a problem area for petty theft, University of Ottawa criminology professor Ronald Melcher is sceptical that the numbers illustrate anything significant other than variations among jurisdictions in local reporting and police recording.

Melcher said that Statistics Canada uses police reported crime rates, data he claims is notoriously unreliable, as it is subject to the proportion of victims who report their victimization as well as police decisions to record what is reported to them. Melcher said that in Ottawa, a relatively safe city, police might have more time to record petty thefts than in other jurisdictions that are more preoccupied with major crime.

Whatever the explanation for the high levels of reported theft, it is clear from individual cases like Hein and Hanley that no one is immune to this type of crime.

Unlike Hanley, whose phone was never recovered, Hein considers herself lucky that just two months after her bike first went missing, it was recovered by police in an apartment building nearby.

“Some of the parts were gone, but police were able to identify it because of its distinct green colour,” said Hein.

Hein hopes to have her bike up and running again by the summer.

 

British Columbia education bureaucrats sounded alarm about effects of teachers’ strike on international education: documents

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By: Hayley Chazan

Source: Study in BC
Photo: Study in BC – International students from Comox Valley School District

Senior government officials warned B.C.’s Minister of Education, Peter Fassbender, that a prolonged teachers’ strike could negatively affect international education in the kindergarten to grade 12 sector for several years.

A summer 2014 briefing note to the Minister and Deputy Minister of Education obtained through a freedom of information request, cautioned that a teachers’ strike would damage B.C.’s international education reputation and hinder the province’s future ability to recruit international students.  Bureaucrats also warned of international students withdrawing from fall 2014 programs, resulting in millions of dollars of lost revenue for public school districts.

The labour dispute between B.C. teachers and the provincial government began nearly a year ago, when teachers voted to walk off the job.

The strike began at the end of April 2014.  A deal was reached on Sept. 18 after students missed the first three weeks of the school year.

While the strike put a strain on the entire education system, international students who had planned to begin their studies in B.C. in the fall of 2014 faced particular difficulties.

According to 2013/2014 provincial data, there were just over 14,000 international students in the province of B.C.

B.C. attracts international students from all over the world and parents pay between $10,000 and $15,000 per year to send their children to public schools in the province.

International students who enrolled for the fall 2014 school year had no choice but to ride out the strike and wait for classes to resume, said Randall Martin, Executive Director of the B.C. Council for International Education, the province’s crown agency responsible for international education.

Ministry of Education spokesman Scott Sutherland admitted that the labour disruption was challenging, but noted that the K-12 sector has actually seen a 20 per cent increase in international student enrolment in 2014/2015 compared to the previous year.

“We are pleased to see that districts reported no decline in international student enrolment this fall,” he said.  “We have earned our reputation by proving to be a reliable and diverse destination for international students – something we continue to work diligently on.”

Cindy Anderson, a spokesman for the Delta School District said that despite the strike, the 2014/2015 school year did not show an abnormal number of student withdrawals from previous years.

Because the strike ended after the third week of school, only a small proportion of international education programming was affected, said Glen Hansman, 1st Vice President of the BC Teachers’ Federation.  Hansman said that the bigger problem facing the international student community is what he calls chronic government underfunding of education in the province.

Charles Ungerleider, director of research at Directions Evidence and Policy Research Group, an education policy think tank in Vancouver, said that now that the labour dispute is resolved and a contract is in place, he believes that international parents won’t hesitate to seek opportunities for their children in B.C.’s public schools, as they are among the best in the world.

Despite the government’s assurances that B.C’s international education reputation is intact, Martin acknowledged that the strike might dissuade a small number of future students from applying to international education programs in B.C, though he said that it’s hard to say for sure.

Although the province’s international education reputation remained intact in the aftermath of the strike, Laura Schwertfeger, district principal of the International Student Department at the Sooke School District on Vancouver Island said she is keen to avoid a repeat of what happened in 2014.

“I think that all agents and school districts are carefully examining their paperwork to make sure that we are well-prepared should something like this happen again.”

—————————————————————————————————————————————-Assignment Components:

1) Original requests

2) Informal requests

3) Freedom of information request used to write this story – two-page excerpt

4)  I used two particularly relevant pages of information obtained through a freedom of information request in order to write this story.

The information is a briefing note on international education in 2014 in the province of British Columbia that was prepared for B.C. Minister of Education, Peter Fassbender, in advance of the Ministry Estimates debate in the spring 2014 sitting of the B.C. legislature. The briefing note was subsequently used as part of the binder used to brief incoming Deputy Minister of Education, Dave Byng, after he was appointed in July 2014.  The note was updated continuously throughout the summer of 2014.

The briefing note is from B.C.’s provincial government.  It comes from the Ministry of Education.

The information was helpful because it explained, in part, the B.C.’s government International Education Strategy.  The briefing note also provided an overview of how the international education program in B.C. works.  This was crucial in order to understand how international education programs were affected by the 2014 teachers’ strike.

The information in the briefing note on which I based my story was on page two, bullet point three.  This information was important because it showed that senior officials warned both the Minister and Deputy Minister of Education about the ramifications a prolonged strike could have on international education in the province.  This part of the briefing note was the basis of my story and allowed me to reach out to school districts, government officials and B.C. teachers in order to find out if any of the government’s worst fears had actually materialized.

Rideau-Vanier residents all fired up about fireworks

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By: Hayley Chazan

Sandy Hill resident Brendan Steven was slapped with a $400 fine from the City of Ottawa in August 2013 after neighbours complained to Ottawa Bylaw Services about fireworks shot into their backyard.

According to an analysis of 311 Service Request data from the City of Ottawa, the Rideau-Vanier ward received 91 firework complaints in the months of May through August in 2013 and 2014 – nearly double the number of complaints received in the second highest ward.

Source: City of Ottawa 311 Service Request data May-August 2013 and 2014 

The data showed that the City of Ottawa receives the largest number of firework complaints in the summer months, when the weather is warmer and more people are spending time outside.  Rideau-Vanier is no exception.

Rideau-Vanier councillor, Mathieu Fleury, said that what he hears about most are complaints about young people going to parks and shooting consumer fireworks.  Consumer fireworks are recreational fireworks sold to the public for everyday use.

He said that this can be particularly problematic in his ward, because residents of Sandy Hill and the Market live so close to green space that as soon as a firework goes off, it resonates off nearby buildings and houses.

“It’s normal that residents are less welcoming here than they are in rural areas.”

Christine Hartig, strategic support coordinator with Bylaw and Regulatory Services at the City of Ottawa said that in Rideau-Vanier, the most common complaint about consumer fireworks is that they’re noisy.  Public safety concerns are rarely of concern to residents, she said.

Fleury said that he assumes that the large number of complaints is specific to one or two events.   He said that he often hears of instances where one person creates a lot of havoc and this results in multiple calls to Bylaw Services in the span of a single night.

Because his ward is so dense, Fleury said that it’s possible that a series of neighbours could have been affected by one event.

According to the city’s bylaws, it is illegal for residents to use consumer fireworks, with a few exceptions near Victoria Day in May and Canada Day in July.  Retailers in Ottawa are only permitted to sell consumer fireworks a week before each holiday.


But the data shows that not everyone abides by these rules.  Rideau-Vanier received 53 firework complaints in June 2013 and 2014 and five complaints in August 2013 and 2014, months when fireworks were not permitted at all.  The data also indicates that some complaints made in May and July 2013 and 2014 occurred outside of the permissible timeframes.

According to Ken Whyte, a firework retailer and wholesaler in Ottawa, the city’s bylaws only regulate the use of fireworks in the city limits, not the purchase or sale of fireworks in other jurisdictions.  He said that because residents have access to consumer fireworks from other regions in Canada all year round through the web, they are more likely to use them even on dates when this activity isn’t permissible.

Hartig said that in Rideau-Vanier, consumer fireworks are most often used when young people are drinking and partying.

This is precisely what happened in Steven’s case when he threw a party at the house he was renting to celebrate the end of his summer job.

“Let me duly note that I – the law abiding host – did not bring or shoot the fireworks, but one of my irresponsible young whipsnapper guests did, and fired said fireworks without my knowledge,” Steven said.

By the time Bylaw Services arrived, the guests who had set off the fireworks were nowhere to be found, and Steven was stuck with the $400 bill.

Twenty-five years later, GST has increased competition for manufacturers, but experts and industry say more tax incentives needed

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By: Hayley Chazan

Twenty-five years after Brian Mulroney’s government implemented the Goods and Services Tax (GST), economists and politicians agree that the tax – long abhorred by consumers – has achieved its intended outcome of increasing competition for Canadian manufacturers.

But tax experts and industry say that the GST is only one factor that affects competitiveness.  They say that in today’s globalized market, other tax incentives for Canadian manufacturers should be implemented in order to encourage investment.

In the 1990s, the government undertook major tax reform to replace a 13.5 per cent Manufacturers’ Sales Tax (MST) with the GST.

The MST was a tax placed on manufactured goods produced in Canada.  Manufacturing companies incurred the tax each time they purchased machinery.  This drove up prices and placed Canadian manufacturing exporters at a competitive disadvantage.

The GST intended to remedy this by taxing consumers directly.  Any tax incurred elsewhere in the production chain would be recoverable through tax credits.

But the GST became a political nightmare, mostly because it was so noticeable to the taxpayer.

“We tried to do ads showing that many products would be cheaper under the GST,” said Senator Marjory LeBreton, Mulroney’s deputy chief of staff at the time.  “But all Canadians could understand was that they would have to pay seven more cents on every dollar.”

Because Mulroney had a majority government, the GST quickly passed in the House of Commons.  But the Liberal-dominated Senate, refused to pass the tax into law.

Using a rare tactic that required special permission from the Queen, Mulroney appointed eight additional senators, giving the Conservatives a loose majority in the upper chamber.  The GST passed on Dec. 13, 1990, by a vote of 55-49 after an 11-week filibuster.


CBC Digital Archives

“The biggest challenge for the Liberal Senate caucus was finding ways to make a filibuster work,” longtime Liberal Senator Colin Kenny recalled.  “At one point, Senator Hastings collapsed in the middle of his speech.  It was very dramatic.”

Despite Liberal opposition, Kenny now acknowledges that the GST is smart policy.  Consumption taxes accounted for 11.4 per cent or $31 billion worth of government revenue in the 2013-2014 federal budget.  Kenny said that this revenue source provides stability to government in bad times.

In 2008, the Harper government lowered the GST from seven per cent to five per cent.  At the time, Brian Mulroney called the tax cut “good politics, but bad policy” because it cost the government nearly $14 billion in revenue.

Twenty-five years later, experts like Carleton economics professor Frances Woolley and Montreal tax expert Martin Gilbert agree that Canadian manufacturing exports are more competitive than they would have been without the GST.

Industry groups also applaud the GST.

“Value added taxes, in general, allow Canadian manufacturing companies to invest in machinery without the burden of taxation,” said Mike Holden, director of policy and economics at Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME).

But Woolley questioned whether or not the switch to the GST has been enough to allow Canadian manufacturers to compete successfully in a globalized market.

“The GST is just one factor of Canadian competitiveness,” said Gilbert.  “If tax authorities from other countries decide to offer incentives to boost their respective economies, there might not be much Canadians can do.”

Holden said that progress is needed to ensure that the Canadian manufacturing industry remains competitive.  The CME said that compared to the US, Canadian manufacturing companies are too small to invest in new facilities and equipment that is critical to their long-term success.

A tax incentive Holden said could help encourage investment is the Scientific Research & Experimental Development (SR&ED) credit.  The SR&ED provides a tax break to small manufacturers for eligible research and development completed in Canada, but Holden said the SR&ED has been cut in recent years.

“The tax system has the potential to play a strong role in encouraging investment in the Canadian manufacturing industry,” Holden said.

Documentation:

1990: Mulroney stacks Senate to pass the GST

This is a CBC news package with Peter Mansbridge from 1990 that aired the day the Queen granted the Mulroney government permission to appoint eight additional senators.  I found it online using CBC’s digital archive.  This was the first source I consulted when trying to decide on a topic.  The video was helpful because it gave me a good sense of the chain of events that unfolded on the day the GST was passed.  It provided a good explanation of the opposing viewpoints of both the Mulroney government and the Liberal senators.

Partial transcript from interview with Senator Marjory LeBreton

This is a partial transcript from a 13-minute interview I conducted over the phone with Senator Marjory LeBreton on Feb. 24, 2015.  I was able to arrange the interview by sending an e-mail to Senator Lebreton’s administrative assistant, Louise Haddock on Feb. 12, 2015.  I obtained Ms. Haddock’s contact information on the Parliament of Canada website.  When I started my research, I found it difficult to understand why Canadians were so reluctant to accept the GST, especially since it made good economic sense and would save them money.  This partial transcript addressed this issue.  It provided me with a clearer understanding of why Canadians couldn’t wrap their heads around the benefits of the GST.

Analyst leery of Walt Disney Company’s success, despite Studio Entertainment earnings more than doubling in 2014 due to the release of Frozen

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By: Hayley Chazan

Business earnings increased more than two-fold in The Walt Disney Company’s Studio Entertainment division, according to the 2014 annual report, but at least one analyst cautions that this growth may not be sustainable.

In his annual letter to shareholders, Disney CEO Robert Iger boasted, “…Disney Animation’s Frozen achieved almost $1.3B in global box office, making it the highest grossing animated feature ever released.”

According to Jacob Campbell, an analyst for Transport Canada’s Deputy Minister, the 2014 growth in Studio Entertainment earnings (referred to as operating income in the annual report) was due in large part to the success of Disney’s Frozen.

Jacob Campbell                                                Photo of Jacob Campbell used with permission

Operating income is a company’s earnings from its primary business before interest and taxes are taken into account. In this case, the primary business is Studio Entertainment. To calculate operating income, both revenue and expenses are taken into consideration. Operating income can grow if either revenue increases or expenses decrease.

“Operating income is a much better measure than net income in determining a company’s performance, because it excludes other items that have little relevance to the actual performance of a company, such as asset sales, debt and financing arrangements,” according to Campbell.

In Disney’s annual reports, Studio Entertainment revenue is divided into three sub-sections sections: theatrical distribution, home entertainment and television and Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) distribution and other.

Looking back a year to 2013, Studio Entertainment revenue increased only slightly due to poor unit sales of Disney movies Brave, Wreck-It Ralph and Iron Man 3.

In 2014, however, everything changed. High DVD and Blue Ray sales of Frozen led to a massive increase in home entertainment revenue. Sales from this one movie alone were strong enough to increase growth in home entertainment by over 20%. According to the notes to the financial statements, all three revenue sub-categories were influenced in whole, or in part by the release of Frozen. This goes to show that just one film’s impact on revenue and operating income can be extremely high.

While many of Disney’s business segments experienced operating income growth in 2014, the Studio Entertainment division displayed the largest increase. Its operating income grew from $661M in 2013 to $1.549B in 2014, an increase of more than 100%.

Generally, as a company’s overall operating income rises, so too do share prices. This was exactly what occurred in Disney’s case. Over the company’s September 2013 to September 2014 fiscal year, stock prices increased from $64.49 to $89.03, an increase of 38%.

Walt Disney Company’s stock prices in 2014 fiscal year by hchazan on TradingView.com

While an increase in share price is good news for investors, Campbell fears that Disney’s 2014 strong performance might create unreal expectations for 2015. Campbell says, “Share price has risen under the expectation that the future performance of the company will continue to rise at that same rate. This means that if the company fails to maintain continuous growth, the share price will come down to reflect a more reasonable and long-term growth rate.”

Frozen is fifth on the list of highest earning films of all time. The only other Disney blockbuster that earned more theatrical revenue than Frozen was Marvel’s The Avengers, released in 2012. With the exception of The Avengers, Frozen’s success is unprecedented. Campbell therefore finds it unlikely that Disney will be able to produce a continually growing number of successful box office hits like Frozen.

While Disney’s 2015 first quarter results have yet to be released, the company clearly has its work cut out for it if it intends to exceed this year’s levels. However, with the imminent release of Tomorrowland and Cinderella alongside a bit of Disney magic, perhaps dreams can come true.