TSI’s Scott Clayton has identified seven exceptional Canadian companies with something rare in today’s market: decades of uninterrupted and rising dividend payments. Featured in our Globe and Mail column, these businesses stand out for their ability to reward shareholders year after year. That means they’ve kept delivering payouts through recessions, market shocks, and changing economic cycles.
Using our proven 12-point Dividend Sustainability Rating System, we focused on companies that combine long payout histories with consistent increases, strong balance sheets, and reliable earnings. These aren’t just dividend payers—they’re dividend growers with the financial discipline to sustain and raise payouts over the long term.
The list spans key sectors of the Canadian economy, including transportation, utilities, infrastructure, consumer staples, and global information services. From a national railway with a 30-year increase streak to a utility leader with more than half a century of dividend growth, each company demonstrates resilience and operational strength backed by essential services or dominant market positions.
Our approach began with a broad universe of Canadian dividend stocks from which we select those with the longest records of continuous increases. We then apply our rating framework, which evaluates payout consistency, recent dividend growth, management commitment, industry stability, balance sheet strength, and the ability to generate steady earnings and cash flow across market cycles.
Excerpt from theglobeandmail.com, June 25, 2026
Sustainable dividends from Canadian companies with decades of continuous – and rising! – payments to shareholders.
A company pays dividends to attract shareholders and reward them for owning stock in the corporation. Those investor payments hold as much appeal for the dividend issuer as the receiver: dividend-paying companies generally outperform their non-dividend-paying counterparts over time – usually by a considerable margin.
In fact, our analysts at The Successful Investor note that dividends have accounted for over 40% of the S&P 500’s total returns since the start of the Great Depression. While some good companies reinvest their profits instead of paying dividends, it’s almost always the case that fraudulent and failing companies are unable to sustain dividend commitments, even if they’ve made them. Most, of course, have not.
For a true measure of dividend stability, investors should focus on companies that have maintained or raised shareholder payments over long periods—including during recessions and stock market downturns. These businesses leave themselves enough room to handle periods of earnings volatility.
We started this search with an extensive list of Canadian dividend-paying stocks, before singling out those with exceedingly long records of continuously rising payments. We then applied our Dividend Sustainability rating system, which awards points to a stock based on key factors:
- One point for five years of continuous dividend payments
- Two points for more than five
- Two points if it has raised the payment in the past five years
- One point for management’s commitment to dividends
- One point for operating in non-cyclical industries
- One point for limited exposure to foreign currency rates and freedom from political interference
- Two points for a strong balance sheet, including manageable debt and adequate cash
- Two points for a long-term record of positive earnings and cash flow sufficient to cover dividend payments
- One point for an industry leader
Companies with 10 to 12 points have the most secure dividends, or the highest sustainability. Those with seven to nine points have above average sustainability; average sustainability, four to six points; and below average sustainability, one to three points.
7 Canadian dividend growers built to last
Our TSI Dividend Sustainability Rating System generated seven stocks.
Montreal-based Canadian National Railway Co. (with a 2.2% yield) operates Canada’s largest railway. The company’s latest dividend hike was its 30th consecutive increase.
Pipeline operator TC Energy Corp. (3.6%), based in Calgary, recently raised its payout for the 26th year in a row.
Power utility Canadian Utilities Ltd. (3.5%), also based in Calgary, has raised its dividend for a whopping 54 consecutive years.
Calgary-headquartered ATCO Ltd. (2.8%) owns 52.5 per cent of Canadian Utilities Ltd. but also ATCO Structures & Logistics and 40 per cent of Neltume Ports; the last of those holdings operates 23 ports and related operations in South America. ATCO is on a 33-year dividend growth streak.
Thomson Reuters Corp. (3.2%), based in Toronto, sells specialized information (mainly through electronic channels) to professionals in the legal, and tax and accounting fields. It also owns the Reuters news service. Thomson has a 33-year record of dividend increases.
Montreal’s Metro Inc. (1.8%) continues to profit from its broad range of food and pharmaceutical offerings. The company’s latest dividend hike was its 32th consecutive increase.
And, Fortis Inc. (3.2%), headquartered in Newfoundland, is the main supplier of electrical power in Newfoundland and PEI. It also owns electrical and gas utilities across North America. Fortis has increased its dividend for a stellar 52 consecutive years.
Scott Clayton, MBA, is senior analyst for TSI Network and associate editor of TSI Dividend Advisor.
