High Dividend Stocks on the TSX, Ranked by Payout Coverage

The highest yield on the Toronto Stock Exchange right now is not a yield. Screen the Canadian market on 2026-09-23 and TELUS comes back at 11.83 per cent, more than double anything else in the telecom sector. TELUS does not pay 11.83 per cent. On July 30, 2026 its board cut the quarterly dividend to $0.1875 per share, a reset the company itself describes as “a reset of 55 per cent to an annualized amount of $0.75 per share.” At the September 23, 2026 close of C$12.09, that declared rate is a yield of 6.20 per cent. The screener is showing a dividend that no longer exists.

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Transcontinental is worse. It screens at 10.46 per cent. It pays 3.77 per cent. In March 2026 it sold its packaging business, paid shareholders a $20.00 per share special distribution, and then cut the regular quarterly rate from $0.225 to $0.05, a reduction of 77.8 per cent. The C$5.30 price a screener divides into is a post-distribution price. Everything about that 10.46 per cent is an artefact.

So we did the work the screener cannot. We took the yield from the market, because that is what the market is for, and we took the coverage from every company’s own filing, because that is what a filing is for. Sixteen of the highest-yielding Canadian companies we could source first-hand are ranked below by how much of their own cash the dividend consumes, on the measure each company itself uses and publishes. Best covered first.

What you will learn on this page: which high TSX yields are real and which are stale screener output; how to read a payout ratio when every sector reports a different one; where the genuinely covered high yields are, from a 30 per cent payout to a 105.7 per cent payout; and how to hold this kind of income in the right account. Prices and yields are as at 2026-09-23. Filing figures carry the period each company reported.

The shape of the Canadian high-yield market

Our tracked universe is the 143 Canadian-listed companies above a C$1 billion market-capitalisation floor, a list built on 2026-08-30 and screened on 2026-09-23. Of those 143, 107 pay a dividend, and the median yield of the payers is 2.57 per cent.

That median is the number to hold on to, because it tells you how unusual the rest of this page is:

Yield threshold	Names clearing it	Where they are
3% or more	43	Real Estate 14, Energy 8, Utilities 7, Financial Services 5, Communication Services 4, Consumer Cyclical 2, Basic Materials 1, Technology 1, Consumer Defensive 1
4% or more	30	Real Estate 14, Utilities 5, Communication Services 4, Energy 4, Basic Materials 1, Technology 1, Financial Services 1
5% or more	17	Real Estate 9, Communication Services 3, Energy 2, Utilities 2, Basic Materials 1
6% or more	7	Real Estate 4, Communication Services 2, Basic Materials 1
7% or more	4	Real Estate 3, Communication Services 1

Four names in the whole tracked universe yield 7 per cent or more, and three of the four are real estate. One is telecom. The Canadian high-yield market is a property and telephone market with a handful of visitors, and anyone selling you a diversified 7 per cent Canadian income portfolio is selling you concentration.

One honesty note before we go further. The universe file has two defects and we would rather you heard them from us. It misses names that clear its own floor, including Freehold Royalties at roughly C$2.8 billion and Peyto at roughly C$4.8 billion, both of which we analyse below anyway. And it retains names that have since fallen through the floor: Nexus Industrial REIT at C$0.75 billion, BTB REIT at C$0.34 billion, PRL.TO at C$0.98 billion and VBNK.TO at C$0.89 billion. The counts above are the shape of our tracked list on 2026-09-23, not a census of the TSX.

How to buy high-dividend stocks in Canada

This section sits before the rankings on purpose. With income stocks, the account you hold them in changes your return by more than the difference between two of the names below, and it is the one decision you make before you buy anything.

Step one is the account, and for income it matters more than it does for growth. A growth stock that pays nothing produces no taxable event until you sell it. A 7 per cent payer produces a taxable event four or twelve times a year whether you want one or not. That is why the account wrapper is the first decision and not an afterthought. Canadian eligible dividends, REIT distributions and US-dollar dividends are all taxed differently from each other, and the account you choose decides how much of each one you keep. We work through the three cases in the tax section further down this page.

Step two is the account provider. What you need to open one in Canada is straightforward: you are 18 or older in your province, you have a Social Insurance Number, and you have a piece of government identification the broker can verify. The application itself is done online. Our walkthrough of the paperwork and the identity checks is in the guide on how to open a brokerage account in Canada, and if you want to compare platforms side by side before committing, the full comparison lives on our Canadian investing apps page.

Step three is the cost, and for a dividend portfolio the cost that bites is not the one on the front page. Commission per trade is the number brokers advertise. The numbers that quietly decide a dividend investor’s return are the foreign-exchange spread on any US-dollar dividend, the account administration fee if there is one, and whether the broker runs a dividend reinvestment plan at no charge. Two of the sixteen companies below, Open Text and Algonquin, declare in US dollars. Every dollar of that income crosses a currency spread on its way to you unless you hold it in a US-dollar account. We set out what each broker actually charges, including the conversion costs, in our breakdown of trading fees in Canada.

Step four is the order. Most of the names on this page are thinly traded compared with a bank, and several are trusts whose units move on small volume. Use a limit order rather than a market order, and check the ex-dividend date before you buy if you are buying for the next payment, because the price adjusts on it.

Ready to open an account? Questrade is the broker we point Canadian income investors to, and registered accounts, US-dollar accounts and a dividend reinvestment plan are all part of the standard offering. Open a Questrade account Affiliate link. We may earn a commission if you open and fund an account, at no additional cost to you.

The screen: the 30 highest yields in the tracked Canadian universe

Chart: the 30 highest trailing yields in our tracked universe of 143 Canadian companies above C$1 billion, grouped by sector. Prices and trailing yields from Yahoo Finance, 2026-09-23.

Every yield in the table below is a trailing yield: the last four declarations divided by the September 23, 2026 price. We are showing you the screener’s number, not ours, because the whole argument of this page is about the distance between the two. Where that distance matters, the table says so.

#	Company (ticker)	Sector	Price C$	Trailing yield	Where it is analysed
1	TELUS Corporation (T.TO)	Communication Services	12.09	11.83%	Stale. Section below
2	Allied Properties REIT (AP-UN.TO)	Real Estate	7.95	9.17%	Section below
3	Nexus Industrial REIT (NXR-UN.TO)	Real Estate	7.31	8.79%	Now below the C$1B floor
4	BTB REIT (BTB-UN.TO)	Real Estate	3.65	8.24%	Now below the C$1B floor
5	SmartCentres REIT (SRU-UN.TO)	Real Estate	26.90	6.92%	Section below
6	Cogeco Communications (CCA.TO)	Communication Services	56.88	6.84%	Section below
7	Lundin Gold (LUG.TO)	Basic Materials	95.46	6.40%	Not analysed here
8	Crombie REIT (CRR-UN.TO)	Real Estate	15.58	5.84%	Canadian REIT pillar
9	CT REIT (CRT-UN.TO)	Real Estate	16.88	5.83%	Canadian REIT pillar
10	Gibson Energy (GEI.TO)	Energy	31.02	5.76%	Section below
11	Enbridge (ENB.TO)	Energy	67.47	5.73%	Energy pillar
12	BCE Inc. (BCE.TO)	Communication Services	30.57	5.67%	Section below
13	Dream Industrial REIT (DIR-UN.TO)	Real Estate	12.80	5.63%	Canadian REIT pillar
14	RioCan REIT (REI-UN.TO)	Real Estate	20.73	5.61%	Section below
15	Choice Properties REIT (CHP-UN.TO)	Real Estate	14.96	5.26%	Canadian REIT pillar
16	Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP-UN.TO)	Utilities	41.94	5.21%	Not analysed here
17	Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP-UN.TO)	Utilities	50.34	5.02%	Not analysed here
18	Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN.TO)	Utilities	7.33	4.95%	Section below
19	Canadian Apartment Properties REIT (CAR-UN.TO)	Real Estate	31.89	4.90%	Canadian REIT pillar
20	Open Text (OTEX.TO)	Technology	32.36	4.83%	Section below
21	Pembina Pipeline (PPL.TO)	Energy	64.66	4.51%	Energy pillar
22	Capital Power (CPX.TO)	Utilities	62.30	4.46%	Not analysed here
23	Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.TO)	Financial Services	64.79	4.29%	Not analysed here
24	Emera (EMA.TO)	Utilities	68.54	4.28%	Not analysed here
25	Granite REIT (GRT-UN.TO)	Real Estate	83.64	4.22%	Canadian REIT pillar
26	Killam Apartment REIT (KMP-UN.TO)	Real Estate	17.22	4.19%	Canadian REIT pillar
27	Primaris REIT (PMZ-UN.TO)	Real Estate	21.48	4.16%	Canadian REIT pillar
28	Rogers Communications (RCI-B.TO)	Communication Services	46.82	4.14%	Not analysed here
29	TC Energy (TRP.TO)	Energy	84.19	4.13%	Energy pillar
30	First Capital REIT (FCR-UN.TO)	Real Estate	22.63	4.06%	Canadian REIT pillar

Fourteen of those thirty are real estate, which is why we do not re-rank them here. The REITs above that do not carry a section further down are covered on our ranking of Canadian REITs by distribution safety, which applies the same coverage test across the whole asset class rather than only to the highest yielders.

The three midstream names are the same story in a different sector. Enbridge targets a payout of 60 to 70 per cent of distributable cash flow and reported debt to EBITDA of 5.10 times for the twelve months to June 30, 2026 in its Q2 2026 supplemental package. TC Energy publishes no payout ratio at all: its stated commitment is three to five per cent annual dividend growth, against a long-term leverage target of 4.75 times debt to EBITDA. Pembina last published proportionately consolidated debt to adjusted EBITDA of 3.50 times for the twelve months ended September 30, 2025, and its “below 100 per cent of fee-based distributable cash flow” payout guardrail appears in a filed investor presentation rather than in a financial statement, so it is management commentary and we treat it as such. All three are analysed properly on our page on Canadian energy stocks.

Transcontinental does not appear in the table above at all, because it is not in the tracked universe. It still has a section below, because it is the cleanest example on the TSX of what this page is about.

One more thing this table is not. It is a yield screen, and a yield screen is a starting point rather than a portfolio. If what you want is the durable compounders rather than the highest numbers, that is a different question and it has a different page: our ranking of the best Canadian dividend stocks selects on quality, dividend growth record and balance sheet rather than on yield, and most of the names on it yield well under 5 per cent.

When the yield on your screener is the wrong number

A trailing dividend yield is the last four declarations divided by today’s price. That definition is the entire problem. It means a screener is telling you what a company paid over the last year, not what it will pay over the next one, and those are different numbers every single time a board changes the rate.

It gets worse. The lag is at its longest and most misleading precisely when a company has just reset its dividend, which is exactly the moment you most need the number to be right. A company that has just cut is the one you are most likely to be looking at, because the cut collapsed the price, which mechanically inflates the trailing yield, which pushes the name straight to the top of every yield screen in the country. The screen is not just wrong. It is systematically wrong in the direction that hurts you.

TELUS: 11.83 per cent on screen, 6.20 per cent in cash

TELUS raised its dividend semi-annually from 2020 through 2025 under a growth program it had extended five times, most recently on May 9, 2025, when it announced an intention to target annual increases of 3 to 8 per cent from 2026 through 2028. The quarterly rate reached $0.4184 with the December 31, 2025 declaration. In December 2025 the company paused the growth program while holding the rate. On July 30, 2026 the board declared $0.1875 per share, payable October 1, 2026.

The July 31, 2026 release calls it “a reset of 55 per cent to an annualized amount of $0.75 per share. The prior annualized amount was $1.6736 per share.” The stated purpose is deleveraging: the reset “is expected to generate approximately $2.7 billion in cumulative cash savings through 2028, directed toward deleveraging.” The discount on the dividend reinvestment plan was terminated at the same time, effective October 1, 2026.

At C$12.09 on 2026-09-23, $0.75 a year is 6.20 per cent. The screener’s 11.83 per cent is 5.63 percentage points of dividend that no longer exists.

Transcontinental: 10.46 per cent on screen, 3.77 per cent in cash

Transcontinental held a $0.225 quarterly rate for 24 consecutive declarations, from February 27, 2020 through December 10, 2025. Then three things happened in quick succession. It sold its Packaging Sector to ProAmpac Holdings Inc., closing March 6, 2026. It authorised a $20.00 per share special cash distribution on March 10, 2026, paid March 20, 2026, structured as a reduction of stated capital of roughly $7.00 per share plus a cash dividend of $13.00 per share for the balance. And it cut the regular quarterly dividend from $0.225 to $0.05, first declared at the new rate on June 3, 2026 and repeated September 9, 2026.

At C$5.30, the $0.05 quarterly rate is 3.77 per cent. The screener’s 10.46 per cent is 6.69 points of fiction, and the price it divides into has already had the special distribution taken out of it.

The two related traps

A fiscal-year dividend figure can be a blend of two rates. BCE’s FY2025 dividends per share came to $2.31. That is not a rate and never was one. It is one quarter at the old $0.9975 plus three quarters at the new $0.4375. BCE’s current annualised rate is $1.75. Any tool that charts $2.31 as “the 2025 dividend” and extrapolates it will misstate the cut by a third.

A special dividend inflates a trailing figure for a full year. Transcontinental’s FY2025 dividends per share came to $1.90. The regular rate that year was $0.90. The other $1.00 was a special dividend declared March 11, 2025 and paid April 23, 2025. A screener does not know the difference, and neither does a chart built from a single annual number.

The one piece of good news

Here is the finding that surprised us, and it is the most useful thing on this page. Of the sixteen names we checked against their own declaration notices, fourteen had an accurate trailing yield. Not roughly accurate. Accurate to about a tenth of a percentage point, with the widest gap of the fourteen being Allied Properties at 0.11 points and most of them inside five hundredths.

So the trailing yield is usually right. It is wrong in exactly one circumstance, which is when a dividend has recently been reset, and that circumstance is the one where being wrong costs you the most. The rule that falls out of this is simple and it is the whole discipline: before you buy any high yielder, find the company’s most recent dividend declaration notice and multiply it out yourself. It takes two minutes and it is the difference between 11.83 per cent and 6.20 per cent.

Here is the full check, every yield computed from the company’s own currently declared rate over the September 23, 2026 price. Where a company declares in US dollars, the rate is converted at USDCAD 1.4084, the 2026-09-23 close, before the yield is taken.

Company (ticker)	Declared rate	Frequency	Price C$	Yield on the declared rate	Screener’s trailing yield	Gap
Fiera Capital (FSZ.TO)	$0.432 CAD	quarterly	4.35	9.93%	9.91%	-0.02 pts
Allied Properties (AP-UN.TO)	$0.72 CAD	monthly	7.95	9.06%	9.17%	0.11 pts
Pizza Pizza Royalty (PZA.TO)	$0.81 CAD	monthly	10.97	7.38%	7.43%	0.05 pts
Cogeco Communications (CCA.TO)	$3.948 CAD	quarterly	56.88	6.94%	6.84%	-0.10 pts
Diversified Royalty (DIV.TO)	$0.285 CAD	monthly	4.12	6.92%	6.93%	0.01 pts
SmartCentres (SRU-UN.TO)	$1.85 CAD	monthly	26.90	6.88%	6.92%	0.04 pts
Alaris Equity Partners (AD-UN.TO)	$1.56 CAD	quarterly	23.89	6.53%	6.55%	0.02 pts
Freehold Royalties (FRU.TO)	$1.08 CAD	monthly	16.93	6.38%	6.35%	-0.03 pts
TELUS (T.TO)	$0.75 CAD	quarterly	12.09	6.20%	11.83%	5.63 pts stale
Peyto Exploration (PEY.TO)	$1.44 CAD	monthly	23.49	6.13%	6.07%	-0.06 pts
Gibson Energy (GEI.TO)	$1.80 CAD	quarterly	31.02	5.80%	5.76%	-0.04 pts
BCE Inc. (BCE.TO)	$1.75 CAD	quarterly	30.57	5.72%	5.67%	-0.05 pts
RioCan (REI-UN.TO)	$1.158 CAD	monthly	20.73	5.59%	5.61%	0.02 pts
Algonquin Power (AQN.TO)	$0.26 USD	quarterly	7.33	5.00%	4.95%	-0.05 pts
Open Text (OTEX.TO)	$1.12 USD	quarterly	32.36	4.87%	4.83%	-0.04 pts
Transcontinental (TCL-A.TO)	$0.20 CAD	quarterly	5.30	3.77%	10.46%	6.69 pts stale

Yields on the declared rate are our arithmetic on two figures: the company’s own currently declared rate, cited in each section below, and the 2026-09-23 closing price.

How we judge coverage, and why the payout ratio on your screener is worse than the yield

If the trailing yield is occasionally wrong, the payout ratio on a free screener is close to permanently useless. As at 2026-09-23, Yahoo Finance’s payout ratio field returns 0.5804 for Bank of Nova Scotia and 0.7456 for Fortis, so the field is plainly a fraction: 58 per cent and 75 per cent of earnings, which are sensible numbers. The same field, on the same day, returns 11.5 for Canadian Utilities, 33.3 for Chartwell Retirement Residences and 6.06 for Laurentian Bank. On its own scale those are payout ratios of 1,150 per cent, 3,330 per cent and 606 per cent. They are not typos and they are not scandals. They are what happens when you divide a cash dividend by an accounting profit.

The reason is not a bug. It is that a payout against accounting earnings is genuinely close to meaningless for most of the companies on this page. Depreciation on a pipeline, an office tower or a gas well is a real economic cost eventually, but it is not a cash cost in the year it is charged, and the dividend is paid in cash. Charge enough non-cash depreciation against a business that generates plenty of cash and the earnings-based payout ratio goes to infinity while the cheque clears without difficulty.

So we did not use earnings. If you want the mechanics behind that choice, financial ratios explained works through why a payout ratio means nothing until its denominator is named, on a company that publishes two of them for the same twelve months. We used the measure each company itself uses and publishes:

• Midstream and energy infrastructure report distributable cash flow. Gibson Energy’s payout is measured against it.
• REITs report AFFO, adjusted funds from operations, which subtracts the leasing costs and maintenance capital that FFO leaves in. SmartCentres, RioCan and Allied Properties are all judged on AFFO.
• Royalty vehicles and gas producers report funds from operations or distributable cash. Freehold, Peyto, Diversified Royalty and Pizza Pizza Royalty all publish their own version.
• Telecom reports free cash flow. TELUS, BCE and Cogeco all publish a payout against it.
• Asset managers and industrials fall back on adjusted earnings, which is closer to the screener’s number but with the company’s own add-backs disclosed.

The caveat that makes this page honest

Because each company defines its own denominator, these ratios are not comparable across companies. Freehold’s 57 per cent and SmartCentres’ 86.7 per cent are not measuring the same thing, and a table that stacks them up as though they were is doing something a little dishonest.

The comparison that is fair, and the one this page makes, is each company against the target it set for itself. A company that publishes a 70 to 80 per cent payout target and reports 88 per cent has told you something specific about its own position. A company running below its own target has told you something too.

Chart: each company’s most recent published payout measure against the target it publishes for itself, built from the filings cited in each section below. Eight of the sixteen publish no numeric target at all and are shown without one.

That last point is worth sitting with. Half of these companies publish no numeric payout target whatsoever. Cogeco, Open Text, Fiera, SmartCentres, RioCan, Diversified Royalty, Allied Properties and Transcontinental all pay a dividend and none of them will tell you what proportion of their cash they intend to pay out. Algonquin’s own forward-looking boilerplate refers to “the Corporation’s ability to achieve its targeted annual dividend payout ratio,” but the figure appears in none of its filings. Where a company publishes no target, we say so below rather than reaching for a number.

The sixteen names, ranked by coverage

Best covered first. Each section carries the yield on the declared rate, the coverage figure on the company’s own measure with its period, the company’s own target where one exists, leverage, five years of dividends per share from the filings, and a verdict.

1. Transcontinental (TCL-A.TO): 15.6 per cent of adjusted earnings

Yield on the declared rate: 3.77 per cent. Quarterly dividend of $0.05, declared September 9, 2026 with the third quarter fiscal 2026 results, annualising to $0.20.

Coverage: 15.6 per cent of adjusted net earnings per share from continuing operations for the three months ended July 26, 2026. That figure is our arithmetic on two cited company inputs, the $0.05 declared and the $0.32 of adjusted EPS from the same release. Transcontinental publishes no payout ratio of any kind, so there is no company-stated figure to use.

The company’s own target: none. Transcontinental’s Annual Information Form says only that “our policy has usually been to pay a quarterly dividend in cash. It should be noted however that our policy has been to retain the major portion of our cash flows in order to invest in different business opportunities.”

Leverage: 2.06 times net indebtedness to the last twelve months’ adjusted operating earnings before depreciation and amortization, at July 26, 2026.

Chart: Transcontinental dividends per share, fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2025, from the 2025 Annual Information Form, Our Dividend Policy, printed page 19, and the 2025 Annual Report, note 21. FY2025’s $1.90 includes a $1.00 special dividend on top of the $0.90 regular rate.

Source document: Transcontinental third quarter fiscal 2026 press release.

Verdict. The best-covered dividend in this entire screen, and it earned that place the wrong way. On the quarter just reported the $0.05 dividend costs about $4.2 million against $25.0 million of operating cash flow. At the new rate the annual cash cost is roughly $16.7 million on 83.6 million shares, against last-twelve-month adjusted EBITDA of $206.3 million. On the company’s own numbers this dividend is comfortably covered, and the reason it is covered is that the rate was cut by 77.8 per cent, not that earnings grew.

Two things bother us. Neither the June 3 nor the September 9, 2026 release gives any explanation for the lower rate, and we checked every fiscal 2026 release plus the special distribution announcement. And the business is now concentrated: after the March 2026 packaging sale, continuing operations are Retail Services and Printing plus Books and Education, with fiscal 2026 guidance only for adjusted operating earnings to remain stable against fiscal 2025. Nine-month operating cash flow from continuing operations was $6.4 million against $85.7 million a year earlier. Chief Financial Officer Donald LeCavalier said in the September 9, 2026 release that “The significant cash flows we expect to generate in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026 will enable us to reduce significantly net indebtedness by the end of the fiscal year.”

2. Cogeco Communications (CCA.TO): 30 per cent of free cash flow

Yield on the declared rate: 6.94 per cent. Quarterly eligible dividend of $0.987 per share, declared July 15, 2026, annualising to $3.948. Note the precision: it is $0.987, not $0.99.

Coverage: 30.0 per cent on Cogeco’s own free cash flow dividend payout ratio, for the year ended August 31, 2025. That is a company-stated figure from the 2025 Annual Report key ratios table. On the stricter version that excludes network expansion projects, the ratio was 25 per cent in fiscal 2025 and 24 per cent in fiscal 2024. Fiscal 2026 is running in the same range: dividends declared of $123,892 thousand over the nine months to May 31, 2026 against free cash flow of $449,817 thousand for the same period is 27.5 per cent, which is our arithmetic on two cited Cogeco figures rather than a Cogeco disclosure. Cogeco reports this ratio annually and fiscal 2026 had not been reported as at 2026-09-23.

The company’s own target: none numeric. The closest policy language is from the 2025 Annual Report: “returning capital to shareholders through a sustainable dividend growth policy.”

Leverage: 3.20 times net indebtedness to adjusted EBITDA at May 31, 2026, up from 3.1 times at August 31, 2025.

Chart: Cogeco Communications dividends per share, fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2026, from the 2025 Annual Report selected financial information, page 23 of the PDF, and the Q3 2026 Shareholders’ report, note 13 B), page 63. Every year is a raise on the one before.

Source document: Cogeco 2025 Annual Report.

Verdict. This is one pole of the page. A 6.94 per cent yield covered three times over by the company’s own free cash flow measure, with no cut and no freeze anywhere in the record we could source. Cogeco has raised the quarterly rate once a fiscal year, each time announced with fourth quarter results: $0.776 to $0.854 to $0.922 to $0.987, the last a 7.0 per cent increase declared October 29, 2025. The 2025 Annual Report states that “During the last five fiscal years, dividends paid per share increased by 9.6% on a compounded annual basis.”

The reason it yields 6.94 per cent anyway is the United States segment. In the third quarter of fiscal 2026 Cogeco revised its assumptions on projected earnings and cash flow growth for the American telecommunications unit and “recognized non-cash pre-tax impairment charges amounting to $2.2 billion, or US$1.6 billion.” Revenue fell 4.7 per cent in both the quarter and the nine months. The impairment is non-cash and does not touch free cash flow, but it is the company marking down the growth assumptions behind a large part of the cash that pays the dividend. Cogeco also carries a sub-investment-grade corporate issuer rating, S&P BB+ stable and DBRS BB (high) stable, and the weighted average term of its long-term debt shortened to 3.8 years from 4.5. President and CEO Frédéric Perron said on July 15, 2026: “We are planning an optimization of capital investments going into next fiscal year, which will facilitate free cash flow generation.”

3. Open Text (OTEX.TO): 33.2 per cent of free cash flow

Yield on the declared rate: 4.87 per cent. Quarterly dividend of US$0.28, declared August 5, 2026, annualising to US$1.12. Converted at USDCAD 1.4084 that is C$1.5774 a year. This is a US-dollar dividend. A Canadian holder’s income from this name moves with the exchange rate, and that is a real variable, not a footnote.

Coverage: 33.2 per cent of free cash flow for the year ended June 30, 2026. Our arithmetic on two cited company figures: dividends paid of $268,357 thousand from the 10-K cash flow statement over free cash flow of $807,517 thousand from the fourth quarter release reconciliation. Open Text does not publish a payout ratio.

The company’s own target: none. Its stated policy is qualitative: “We currently expect to continue paying cash dividends on a quarterly basis,” subject to board discretion, its credit agreements and the solvency conditions of the Canada Business Corporations Act.

Leverage: 2.75 times consolidated net leverage at June 30, 2026, against a Revolver covenant maximum of 4.50 times.

Chart: Open Text dividends per share in US dollars, fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2026, from the company’s own tagged values in its Forms 10-K. No cut, no freeze and no consolidation in the period.

Source document: Open Text fourth quarter fiscal 2026 results release.

Verdict. Comfortable on the trailing numbers and tightening on the forward ones. The dividend alone takes a third of free cash flow, but total shareholder returns are larger: fiscal 2026 brought “Record capital returns of $677 million including $268 million via dividends and $409 million of share repurchases,” which is 83.8 per cent of the year’s free cash flow on our arithmetic.

The risk here is in the guidance, not the trailing ratio. Open Text guides fiscal 2027 free cash flow to $625 million to $725 million against $807.5 million delivered in fiscal 2026, with adjusted EBITDA margin of 32 to 33 per cent against 36.3 per cent. On the current dividend that lifts the same payout measure to roughly 37 to 43 per cent before any buyback. The raise is decelerating in step: the new US$0.28 rate annualises to $1.12 against $1.10 declared across fiscal 2026, roughly 1.8 per cent, after a 5 per cent increase the year before. And there is a refinancing in progress: on September 22, 2026 the company issued a conditional notice of redemption for the full $1.0 billion of its 6.900 per cent senior secured notes due 2027, to be redeemed October 2, 2026, funded by “one or more offerings of debt securities” it had not yet placed. CFO Steve Rai framed the year ahead as “cash generation, debt reduction, and capital allocation.”

4. Fiera Capital (FSZ.TO): 51.4 per cent of adjusted earnings

Yield on the declared rate: 9.93 per cent. Quarterly dividend of $0.108 per Class A and Class B share, declared August 6, 2026, annualising to $0.432. That is $0.108, not $0.11.

Coverage: 51.4 per cent of adjusted diluted earnings per share for the three months ended June 30, 2026. Our arithmetic on the $0.108 declared over $0.21 of adjusted EPS, both cited to Fiera’s own Q2 2026 documents. Fiera publishes no payout ratio.

The company’s own target: none numeric. The 2025 Annual Information Form says only that “Fiera Capital maintains a policy of distributing a substantial portion of its operating cash flow to its shareholders in the form of dividends.”

Leverage: 3.81 times net debt to last-twelve-month adjusted EBITDA at June 30, 2026, up from 3.6 times.

Chart: Fiera Capital dividends per share, 2021 to 2025, from the company’s Q4 2021, Q4 2023 and Q4 2025 MD&A dividends notes. The break in the series is the 50 per cent cut declared May 8, 2025.

Source document: Fiera Capital Q2 2026 MD&A.

Verdict. The highest genuine yield on this page, and the one where the answer depends entirely on which earnings number you believe. The dividend is covered about twice over on adjusted earnings and about twice over on free cash flow. It is not covered on IFRS earnings: diluted EPS was $0.03 in the quarter against $0.108 declared, roughly 360 per cent, and that gap is exactly what a screener showing a payout ratio above 2 is measuring. The difference between $0.03 of IFRS EPS and $0.21 of adjusted EPS is Fiera’s own add-backs, principally share-based compensation, amortisation of intangibles, restructuring and acquisition costs and non-controlling interest effects, all set out in the Non-IFRS Measures section of the MD&A. Which number you trust decides whether this dividend looks safe or looks doomed.

The business risk Fiera names first is client concentration in mandates sub-advised by PineStone Asset Management. In the second quarter of 2026 those mandates produced negative $5.3 billion of net organic growth, $3.7 billion of it lost mandates, and management is aware of a further client request to move about $1.5 billion directly to PineStone. Total revenues of $155.1 million were down 4.8 per cent year over year. One point in Fiera’s favour on timing: the cut is behind it. CFO Lucas Pontillo announced it on May 9, 2025 saying “Considering the uncertain and rapidly changing economic environment, management has recommended, and the Board has approved to reduce the quarterly dividend to 10.8 cents per share,” and the $0.108 rate has now been held for five consecutive quarters.

5. Freehold Royalties (FRU.TO): 57 per cent of funds from operations

Yield on the declared rate: 6.38 per cent. Monthly dividend of $0.09 per share, declared September 15, 2026, annualising to $1.08.

Coverage: 57 per cent on Freehold’s own dividend payout ratio, dividends paid divided by funds from operations, for the three months ended June 30, 2026. Company-stated, and described by Freehold as its lowest quarterly payout ratio since 2022. Year to date the figure is 65 per cent.

The company’s own target: approximately 60 per cent. Freehold’s stated objective is to “Deliver a sustainable annual dividend, targeting a dividend payout ratio of approximately 60%.” It is running below it.

Leverage: 1.00 times net debt to trailing twelve-month funds from operations at June 30, 2026, against a stated target below 1.5 times.

Chart: Freehold Royalties dividends per share on a payment basis, 2021 to 2025, from the company’s own Dividend History workbook, Summary sheet. The window captures the recovery from the 2020 cut rather than the cut itself.

Source document: Freehold Royalties Q2 2026 Quarterly Report.

Verdict. One of the cleanest setups on the page: a 6.38 per cent yield, a payout below the company’s own target, and leverage at a third of the company’s own ceiling. The monthly rate has been $0.09 since the September 2022 payment, unchanged through the October 2026 payment, after a staircase of seven increases from the $0.015 trough of 2020. The MD&A states plainly that “Freehold’s dividend of $0.09 per common share is aligned with the Company’s target dividend payout ratio,” and CEO David M. Spyker said in the second quarter release: “We expect this combination to continue supporting our dividend, funding growth opportunities and delivering attractive long-term value.”

Two things keep this from being a free lunch. Freehold carries commodity price exposure unhedged, and realized natural gas pricing is already weak at $0.88 per Mcf in the quarter against AECO 5A of $1.63, so the payout leans on oil and NGL revenue, which was over 95 per cent of royalty and other revenue. Production is also declining, at 15,622 boe/d against 16,584 a year earlier, with management expecting the benefit of increased drilling mainly in late 2026 and early 2027. There is also a live tax dispute: the CRA denied $222 million of non-capital losses, producing taxes, interest and penalties of approximately $62 million. Freehold objected, remitted deposits of $30.9 million, and has filed a notice of appeal with the Tax Court of Canada. No provision has been recorded.

6. BCE (BCE.TO): 64 per cent of free cash flow

Yield on the declared rate: 5.72 per cent. Quarterly dividend of $0.4375, declared August 6, 2026, annualising to $1.75.

Coverage: 64 per cent of free cash flow for the year ended December 31, 2025, company-stated. BCE also publishes an implied payout on free cash flow after payment of lease liabilities, which was approximately 99 per cent for the same year. BCE does not publish a quarterly ratio.

The company’s own target: 40 to 55 per cent of free cash flow, reset alongside the dividend cut in May 2025. The 64 per cent figure is above it, and BCE says so itself, describing 2025 as “the transitional nature of the year following the mid-year reset of the dividend level.”

Leverage: 3.78 times net debt to twelve-month trailing adjusted EBITDA at December 31, 2025, against an internal policy target of approximately 3.0 times, approximately 3.5 times by end 2027 and approximately 3.0 times by 2030. BCE does not restate the ratio in its Q2 2026 MD&A.

Chart: BCE dividends per share, 2021 to 2025, from the company’s SEC XBRL filings cross-checked against the 2025 Annual Information Form dividends table. The FY2025 figure of $2.31 is a part-year blend, one quarter at $0.9975 plus three at $0.4375, not a rate.

Source document: BCE 2025 annual MD&A.

Verdict. BCE’s 5.72 per cent is a settled post-cut yield, not a yield trap in the TELUS sense, and that distinction matters. The cut already happened: on May 8, 2025 BCE “adjusted the BCE annualized common share dividend to $1.75, or $0.4375 quarterly per common share, from a $3.99 annualized common share dividend,” a reduction of 56.1 per cent. CEO Mirko Bibic framed it as “the appropriate decision to adjust our annualized dividend to $1.75 per common share to strengthen our balance sheet while maintaining flexibility in the context of economic uncertainty.” The rate has been held since.

The forward risk is the free cash flow guidance, not another rate change. On March 16, 2026 BCE cut 2026 free cash flow guidance from $3,300 to $3,500 million down to $2,100 to $2,300 million, a decline of 28 to 34 per cent, because “capital expenditures to increase by $1.3B over 2025 due to the construction of the Saskatchewan AI data centre,” with capital intensity guidance raised from below 15 per cent to about 20 per cent. On BCE’s own inputs, the first half of 2026 ran at 44.2 per cent of free cash flow, inside the policy range. On a forward basis, 932,525,817 shares at $1.75 is about $1.63 billion of annual common dividends against that guidance, which implies roughly 71 to 78 per cent for the full year, above the range. Both of those are our arithmetic from BCE’s own figures, not BCE disclosures. BCE’s own answer to that is that its payout policy “is designed to remain consistent in the long term. As a result, dividends are not automatically reduced in a year when free cash flow is lower.” Its own risk factor list includes “uncertainty as to whether our dividend payout policy will be maintained or achieved.”

7. Alaris Equity Partners (AD-UN.TO): 66.1 per cent of net distributable cash flow

Yield on the declared rate: 6.53 per cent. Quarterly distribution of $0.39 per trust unit, declared September 18, 2026, annualising to $1.56.

Coverage: 66.1 per cent on Alaris’ own payout ratio, cash distributions paid divided by Alaris net distributable cash flow, for the three months ended June 30, 2026. Company-stated. The six-month figure of 57.8 per cent is the better read, because the second quarter is seasonally the lightest for discretionary common distributions from partners and the third is the heaviest.

The company’s own target: 65 to 70 per cent. Stated as “the Trust’s long-term target range of 65%-70%” and confirmed in the September 14, 2026 increase announcement: “The increase brings the quarterly distribution to $0.39 per Unit and the annual distribution to $1.56 per Unit, with Alaris payout ratio expected to remain within its 65-70% target.”

Leverage: 2.40 times funded debt to contracted EBITDA at June 30, 2026, the credit facility covenant measure at the Acquisition Entities.

Chart: Alaris distributions per unit, 2021 to 2025, from the FY2021, FY2022 and FY2025 MD&A and the 2025 Annual Information Form. The window shows recovery and growth: the 2020 cut sits just before it opens.

Source document: Alaris Q2 2026 MD&A.

Verdict. The one name on this page that is deliberately built not to pay out nearly everything, and it is currently running below its own target with room to spare. Every increase since 2022 has come alongside a new partner investment: to $0.37 in October 2025, $0.38 in April 2026 with the $75.3 million Kubik investment, and $0.39 in September 2026 with the US$95 million Nexus investment. CEO Steve King described the second quarter as “being well below our targeted payout ratio without even including the large Fleet dividend that came in just after quarter-end.”

The risk is structural and Alaris states it first: “Our ability to pay Trust Distributions, to satisfy our debt service obligations and to pay our operating expenses depends on our Partners’ consistent payment of Distributions, our sole source of cash flow.” Distributions from most partners reset with that partner’s revenue, same-store sales or gross margin, so a negative move reduces what Alaris receives. Alaris’ rights are generally subordinated to each partner’s senior lenders. Four partners are currently below 1.0 times earnings coverage and two of those, FMP and Heritage, are contributing no run rate revenue at all. There is also currency exposure, with a stated sensitivity of about $990 thousand of run rate cash flow per one cent move in USD to CAD. One caveat on the 66.1 per cent: it is the pre-increase ratio, and the company has not published an updated run rate ratio reflecting the September 2026 raise.

8. Peyto Exploration & Development (PEY.TO): 70 per cent total payout

Yield on the declared rate: 6.13 per cent. Monthly dividend of $0.12 per share, confirmed September 15, 2026, annualising to $1.44.

Coverage: 70 per cent on Peyto’s own total payout ratio for the three months ended June 30, 2026, and 73 per cent for the six months. This is the strictest ratio on the page, because Peyto’s definition includes dividends declared plus total capital expenditures plus decommissioning expenditures, all over funds from operations. It says that 70 cents of every dollar of funds from operations went to the dividend, the capital programme and decommissioning combined, leaving 30 cents for debt repayment.

The dividend alone is a much smaller claim: 31.6 per cent of funds from operations, which is our arithmetic on the two figures Peyto prints side by side in the same table, since the company no longer publishes a standalone dividend payout line. Free funds flow, which Peyto does publish, was $140.6 million in the quarter against $71.8 million of dividends declared.

The company’s own target: none numeric. Peyto’s stated model is to “Over time, balance dividends paid to shareholders with earnings and cash flow, and balance funding for the capital program with cash flow, equity and available credit lines.”

Leverage: 1.06 times total debt to EBITDA at June 30, 2026, against a covenant of less than 4.0 times. Interest coverage is 17.45 times against a covenant of greater than 3.0.

Chart: Peyto dividends per share, 2021 to 2025, from the 2023 Annual Report annual financial information table and the 2025 Annual Report MD&A highlights. The window captures the rebuild from the 2020 cut, not the cut.

Source document: Peyto Q2 2026 MD&A.

Verdict. A 6.13 per cent yield from a natural gas producer, with the dividend itself taking under a third of funds from operations and leverage at a quarter of the covenant. The rate was raised 9 per cent in May 2026, from $0.11 to $0.12 monthly, the first increase since the move to $0.11 in early 2023. CEO Jean-Paul Lachance noted in the September 2026 monthly report: “Since then, we repaid $347 million of debt and brought our Debt to EBITDA ratio back down to 1x despite lower commodity prices than forecasted.”

The thing to watch is the hedge book rolling off into weaker protection. The AECO benchmark was $1.43 per GJ for the quarter. Peyto has 505 MMcf per day hedged for the second half of 2026 at $4.02 per Mcf, and 404 MMcf per day for 2027 at $3.31 per Mcf, which is materially lower protection on lower volumes. The company’s own framing, from the May 2026 release: the hedging program “protects cash flows and the sustainability of the Company’s dividend if natural gas price weakens moving forward.” The other claim on cash is the capital programme, budgeted at $450 to $500 million for 2026, which is precisely why the total payout ratio rather than the dividend-only ratio is the one Peyto manages to.

9. TELUS (T.TO): 74 per cent of free cash flow, on the old dividend

Yield on the declared rate: 6.20 per cent. Quarterly dividend of $0.1875, declared July 30, 2026 and payable October 1, 2026, annualising to $0.75. The screener still shows 11.83 per cent.

Coverage: 74 per cent on the TELUS Corporation common share dividend payout ratio net of dividend reinvestment plan effects, for the twelve months ended June 30, 2026. Company-stated. Read that figure carefully: it is struck on the pre-reset dividend. TELUS also publishes the IFRS-comparable version, dividends declared over cash from operating activities less capital expenditures, which was 109 per cent for the same twelve months. No post-reset company-stated ratio exists yet; the first will come with third quarter results in November 2026.

The company’s own target: 45 to 60 per cent of free cash flow on a trailing twelve-month basis, shifted from a prior objective of 60 to 75 per cent on a prospective basis. The 74 per cent is above the new range.

Leverage: 3.50 times net debt to EBITDA excluding restructuring and other costs at June 30, 2026, outside TELUS’ long-term objective range of 2.5 to 3.0 times. The company now targets circa 3.0 times in 2028, pushed back from 2027.

Chart: TELUS dividends per share, 2021 to 2025, from the company’s SEC XBRL filings cross-checked against the 2025 Annual Information Form section 6 dividends table. The freeze came in December 2025 and the 55 per cent reset in July 2026, both after this window closes.

Source document: TELUS Q2 2026 condensed interim financial statements.

Verdict. The most important name on this page and the one most likely to be bought by accident. Everything about the screener entry is misleading: the yield is a year out of date, and the payout ratio, when TELUS itself publishes one, is struck on a dividend that has since been halved. The 74 per cent trailing figure describes a company that was paying too much. The company agreed, and stopped.

What the reset buys is real. TELUS expects it to generate approximately $2.7 billion in cumulative cash savings through 2028, directed toward deleveraging, and it terminated the DRIP discount at the same time. CFO Gopi Chande: “In combination, the dividend reset, termination of the DRIP discount and proceeds from our monetization initiatives provide a path to achieve our leverage and free cash flow objectives.” CEO Victor Dodig: “The macro environment has shifted and we are responding with clarity and discipline.”

What it is responding to is also real. TELUS attributes the slipped leverage target to “the impact of competitive pricing pressure and reduced subscriber demand amid lower population growth on organic free cash flow generation.” The second quarter carried a pre-tax non-cash impairment of $2.1 billion on the TELUS Digital unit, producing a $1.8 billion net loss and cutting earnings coverage to 0.5 times from 2.0. Free cash flow guidance was cut to approximately $1.8 billion from approximately $2.45 billion, service revenue guidance to flat to negative 2 per cent, and capital expenditures revised up to approximately $2.6 billion. On the reset rate against that guidance, the forward payout is roughly $1.1 billion against approximately $1.8 billion, which is our arithmetic on a share count that moves with the DRIP and not a TELUS figure. A fuller capital returns framework is promised with third quarter results in November 2026.

10. Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN.TO): 81 per cent of adjusted net earnings

Yield on the declared rate: 5.00 per cent. Quarterly dividend of US$0.0650, declared August 7, 2026, annualising to US$0.26. Converted at USDCAD 1.4084 that is C$0.3662 a year. This is a US-dollar dividend, and registered shareholders can elect to receive it in Canadian dollars, most recently at C$0.0912 for the October 2026 payment. A Canadian holder’s income moves with the exchange rate.

Coverage: 81 per cent of adjusted net earnings per common share for the trailing four quarters, Q3 2025 through Q2 2026. That is our arithmetic on two rows of AQN’s own Summary of Quarterly Results table: US$0.26 declared against US$0.32 of adjusted net EPS. AQN publishes no payout ratio.

Note that quarterly coverage for a utility is lumpy. Q2 2026 adjusted net EPS of $0.04 barely covered the $0.065 declared for that quarter, while Q1 2026 at $0.13 covered it twice over. The trailing four-quarter figure is the honest one.

The company’s own target: none published. AQN’s 2025 AIF forward-looking language refers to “the Corporation’s ability to achieve its targeted annual dividend payout ratio,” but no figure for that target appears in the 2025 AIF, the 2025 annual MD&A, the Q2 2026 MD&A, the March 6, 2026 results release or the June 3, 2025 investor update. We are not going to invent one. The nearest stated policy is from the January 2023 cut announcement: “AQN will continue distributions to shareholders with a sustainable dividend that is expected to grow in general alignment with Adjusted Net Earnings per share.”

Leverage: not reported. As a pure-play regulated utility, AQN stopped presenting adjusted EBITDA and adjusted funds from operations in the first quarter of 2025, because those metrics “were relevant mainly to the Company’s former renewable energy group (excluding hydro) that was sold.” There is therefore no company-stated net debt to EBITDA or FFO to debt figure to cite, and computing one would require inventing an EBITDA the company does not publish.

Chart: Algonquin dividends per share in US dollars, 2021 to 2025, from the 2023 and 2025 Annual Information Forms, section 5.1. Two cuts sit inside this window and there has been no raise since 2022.

Source document: Algonquin Q2 2026 MD&A.

Verdict. The dividend here has already been cut twice and the current rate has now held for nine consecutive quarters, most recently declared August 7, 2026. Cut one, announced January 12, 2023, took the quarterly rate from US$0.1808 to US$0.1085, exactly 40.0 per cent. Cut two, announced August 9, 2024 alongside the sale of the renewables business to LS Power, took it to US$0.0650, a further 40.1 per cent. The company called that second one a move to “a more sustainable level.” From the FY2022 peak of $0.713 to the FY2025 level of $0.260 is a 61 per cent reduction.

What you are buying now is a regulated utility with an 81 per cent payout on adjusted earnings, no published leverage metric and no published payout target. CEO Rod West has set out the plan: “Our approximately $3.2 billion regulated capital plan for 2026 through 2028 underpins our expectation for 5% to 6% compound annual growth in rate base,” with “no equity issuance through 2027.” The risks AQN names against that are specific. It is a holding company that “must rely on the cash flows from its subsidiaries to pay dividends,” and states that a covenant default “could result in the termination of dividends by the Company.” Regulatory outcomes drive the denominator directly: the March 2026 release already cut the 2027 adjusted net EPS outlook from $0.42 to $0.46 down to $0.38 to $0.42. Wildfire exposure from the 2020 Mountain View Fire has produced $178.4 million of accrued and incurred estimated losses, and a June 2026 proposed decision recommending recovery of only about $58.1 million triggered a $17.2 million write-off in the second quarter. AQN also intends to redomicile its incorporation to the United States, with shareholder approval expected to be sought in the first half of 2027 and “certain shareholders may be subject to adverse tax consequences.”

11. SmartCentres REIT (SRU-UN.TO): 86.7 per cent of AFFO

Yield on the declared rate: 6.88 per cent. Monthly distribution of $0.15417 per unit, declared September 16, 2026, annualising to $1.85.

Coverage: 86.7 per cent payout ratio to AFFO for the three months ended June 30, 2026, company-stated, calculated on the REALPAC White Paper basis. On a rolling twelve-month basis it is 90.5 per cent, and on the AFFO with adjustments basis the quarterly ratio is 94.9 per cent.

The company’s own target: none numeric. The Board states it “currently intends to maintain its monthly cash distribution levels.”

Leverage: 9.80 times adjusted debt to adjusted EBITDA at June 30, 2026, up from 9.7 times. Debt to aggregate assets rose to 45.0 per cent from 44.4 per cent and interest coverage fell to 2.5 times from 2.6.

Chart: SmartCentres distributions per unit, 2021 to 2025, from the 2021 and 2025 Annual Information Forms, Distribution History. Twelve months at $0.15417 every year: an unbroken flat rate since October 2019.

Source document: SmartCentres SmartCentres Q2 2026 MD&A.

Verdict. SmartCentres has paid exactly $0.15417 per unit per month since October 2019, through the pandemic without a cut and through the post-2022 rate cycle without an increase. Roughly seven years of a perfectly flat rate is a genuine achievement and a genuine limitation at the same time: distributions that have not moved in seven years have lost real purchasing power over that period.

The ratios are all moving the wrong way and the trust says why. Payout to AFFO rose to 86.7 per cent from 84.3, and to 90.5 per cent on a rolling twelve-month basis from 84.4, which management attributes to higher interest expense, higher general and administrative expenses, higher capital expenditures and lower interest income. The refinancing arithmetic is unhelpful: the weighted average term of debt is only 2.9 years, down from 3.4 at December 31, 2025, against a weighted average rate of 4.00 per cent, while the three 2026 unsecured maturities totalling $480 million carry coupons of 3.44, 3.52 and 2.98 per cent. Those refinance upward. The swaps fixing $800 million of facility borrowings at 3.97 per cent have a weighted average term to maturity of 1.09 years. Available capital resources fell $151.3 million in six months to $715.4 million. And the quarter carried a $196.2 million fair value loss on investment properties, a $216.7 million swing from the prior year, which is non-cash but signals the direction of the asset base those leverage ratios are struck against. Management’s own framing: “By focusing on the quality of our portfolio and the build-out of our development pipeline, we will continue to generate resilient income and grow FFO to support sustainable distributions.”

12. Gibson Energy (GEI.TO): 88 per cent of distributable cash flow, above its own target

Yield on the declared rate: 5.80 per cent. Quarterly dividend of $0.45 per common share, declared July 27, 2026, annualising to $1.80.

Coverage: 88 per cent on Gibson’s own dividend payout ratio, dividends declared divided by distributable cash flow on a rolling twelve-month basis, for the twelve months ended June 30, 2026. Company-stated. Gibson publishes this only on a rolling basis, so there is no single-quarter figure.

The company’s own target: 70 to 80 per cent of distributable cash flow, alongside a leverage target of 3.0 to 3.5 times. At 88 per cent the payout is above the range, and Gibson says so in its own release: the payout ratio and leverage “are expected to remain temporarily elevated until a full 12 months of contribution from the Chauvin acquisition is reflected.”

Leverage: 4.20 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA on a rolling twelve-month basis, also above the 3.0 to 3.5 times target. Net debt excludes $450.0 million of unsecured hybrid notes, which the company treats as equity.

Chart: Gibson Energy dividends per share, 2021 to 2025, from the FY2023 and FY2025 MD&A three-year comparative rows. A raise in every one of the five years.

Source document: Gibson Energy Q2 2026 MD&A.

Verdict. This is what a company running past its own target looks like when it handles the disclosure properly. Gibson has raised the quarterly dividend for seven consecutive years, most recently to $0.45 on February 17, 2026. CFO Riley Hicks on that raise: “We are pleased to announce our seventh consecutive annual dividend increase,” and “This five percent increase reflects the continued growth in our stable Infrastructure cash flows, driven by the successful completion of key capital projects in 2025.”

Both the payout and the leverage are outside the company’s stated bands right now, and both are outside for the same reason: the $400 million Chauvin acquisition closed in May 2026, funded partly with $400 million of 4.45 per cent senior unsecured notes issued July 9, 2026 and due January 9, 2034. The acquisition contributes to the cash flow denominator for only part of the trailing period. That is a coherent explanation and the company put it in its own financial highlights rather than leaving a reader to find it. Whether the ratios come back inside the bands depends on Chauvin delivering, and that is a test, not a certainty. Gibson’s own AIF names payment of dividends as a standalone risk factor: the payment “may be limited by the terms of its indebtedness” and the Board “may reduce, suspend or eliminate dividends at any time.”

13. RioCan REIT (REI-UN.TO): 89.5 per cent of Core AFFO

Yield on the declared rate: 5.59 per cent. Monthly distribution of $0.0965 per unit, declared September 15, 2026, annualising to $1.158.

Coverage: 89.5 per cent Core AFFO payout ratio on a rolling twelve-month basis to June 30, 2026, company-stated. RioCan publishes four payout ratios and they are not interchangeable. The unadjusted AFFO payout ratio of 80.6 per cent is lower only because unadjusted AFFO in the comparative windows included large residential inventory gains. The Core FFO payout is 73.8 per cent and the FFO payout 67.7 per cent. Quoting an FFO payout as an AFFO payout would understate the cost of this distribution by roughly 16 percentage points.

The company’s own target: none numeric. The MD&A states: “The Trust’s Core FFO Payout Ratio is maintained at a level that allows for the reinvestment of retained earnings, further strengthening RioCan’s financial position and enabling sustainable growth.”

Leverage: 8.81 times adjusted spot debt to adjusted EBITDA at RioCan’s proportionate share, at June 30, 2026.

Chart: RioCan distributions per unit, 2021 to 2025, from the trust’s own distribution history table cross-checked against the Q4 2025 MD&A. FY2021’s $0.96 is a clean twelve months at the reduced post-cut rate.

Source document: RioCan RioCan Q2 2026 MD&A.

Verdict. RioCan cut its monthly rate from $0.1200 to $0.0800 with the January 2021 distribution, a reduction of one third, then rebuilt it in four steps: to $0.0850 in February 2022, $0.0900 in February 2023, $0.0925 in February 2024 and $0.0965 in February 2025. There was no increase in February 2026, so the distribution has now been flat for nineteen months, and at $1.158 annualised RioCan is still about 20 per cent below its pre-cut $1.44 rate six years later.

Every payout ratio deteriorated year over year. Core AFFO payout rose to 89.5 per cent from 86.6, AFFO payout to 80.6 from 70.7, Core FFO payout to 73.8 from 71.9 and FFO payout to 67.7 from 60.5, which RioCan attributes to lower Core AFFO and AFFO plus the $0.0480 per unit per annum increase effective February 2025, partly offset by unit repurchases. Core AFFO payout peaked at 90.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2026. Refinancing works against it: the weighted average effective rate on total debt rose to 4.16 per cent from 4.03, while the 2027 and 2028 maturities of $2.11 billion carry blended rates of 3.36 and 3.19 per cent. Floating rate exposure more than doubled to 12.7 per cent of total debt from 5.8 per cent at December 31, 2025, and to 14.2 per cent at proportionate share against a stated ceiling of 15.0. Liquidity fell $722.2 million in six months to $693.6 million. Adjusted EBITDA is falling, at $795.9 million on a rolling twelve-month basis against $839.4 million, mainly on lower residential inventory gains, which is what pushed debt to EBITDA up even as absolute debt came down. CEO Jonathan Gitlin’s framing of the quarter: “Our second-quarter results reinforce that RioCan’s strategy is working.”

14. Diversified Royalty (DIV.TO): 93.7 per cent of distributable cash

Yield on the declared rate: 6.92 per cent. Monthly dividend of $0.02375 per share, approved September 3, 2026, annualising to $0.285.

Coverage: 93.7 per cent on DIV’s own payout ratio, dividends per share divided by distributable cash per share, for the three months ended June 30, 2026. Company-stated, up from 84.7 per cent. DIV’s own explanation: “The higher payout ratio was primarily due to higher dividends declared per share, partially offset by higher distributable cash per share.” One comparability warning: the definition of distributable cash was revised in the second quarter of 2026, and under the old method Q2 2025 was reported as 83.0 per cent rather than the restated 84.7, so a comparison against DIV’s older releases is not like for like.

The company’s own target: none numeric. The stated policy is that “DIV intends to continue to pay a predictable and stable monthly dividend to shareholders and increase the dividend over time, in each case as cash flow per share allows.”

Leverage: not published. DIV publishes no consolidated net debt to EBITDA or equivalent ratio in its quarterly MD&A or news release.

Chart: Diversified Royalty dividends declared per share, 2021 to 2025, from the FY2022, FY2023 and FY2025 MD&A dividends sections. Every year is higher than the one before it.

Source document: Diversified Royalty Q2 2026 results news release.

Verdict. A royalty vehicle paying out most of what it collects is the vehicle working as designed, and the important thing about DIV is that it does not pay out quite all of it. It has run the payout ratio in the high eighties rather than at or above 100, so it retains a slice. The rate has risen eight times since the April 2020 cut from $0.01958 to $0.01667, and the pattern is clear from the company’s own record: DIV raises the dividend when it closes a royalty acquisition, not on organic growth. The last two raises came with the Cheba Hut acquisition in June 2025 and again in November 2025.

The risks are concentration and one partner in difficulty. The 2025 AIF names Mr. Lube + Tires as the one partner above DIV’s own 30 per cent of consolidated adjusted revenue significance threshold. Sutton is the problem: royalties from October 2024 to September 2025 were forgiven, 33 per cent of royalties from October 2025 are relieved, a $7.2 million intangible impairment was taken at June 30, 2026, and DIV warns Sutton “may require additional royalty relief” if the proposed variable royalty structure is not entered into. Term loans of $314.6 million carrying value all float on Prime, CORRA or SOFR, and $48.6 million of 6.00 per cent convertible debentures mature June 30, 2027. Dividends are prohibited under the Acquisition Facility if DIV falls out of compliance with its financial covenants.

CEO Sean Morrison’s own account of the quarter sets the good against the bad: “Oxford posted same-store sales growth of 2.9%, Mr. Mikes’ same-store sales growth and royalty was essentially unchanged and Sutton’s royalty declined following our decision to accrue the royalty based on the proposed new variable royalty structure. Meanwhile, our fixed-royalty partners — AIR MILES, Nurse Next Door, Stratus, BarBurrito, and Cheba Hut — all met their fixed royalty obligations.”

15. Pizza Pizza Royalty (PZA.TO): 102 per cent, which is the design

Yield on the declared rate: 7.38 per cent. Monthly dividend of $0.0675 per share, declared July 22, 2026, annualising to $0.81.

Coverage: 102 per cent on the company’s own payout ratio, dividends declared to shareholders divided by adjusted earnings available for shareholder dividends, for the three months ended June 30, 2026. Company-stated.

The company’s own target: at or near 100 per cent. Pizza Pizza’s own MD&A says the company has “targeted a payout ratio at or near 100% on an annualized basis,” and the outlook section adds that “with the dividend adjustment in May 2026, the Company is aligned to meet this target.”

Leverage: 1.19 times funded debt to EBITDA on a four-quarter rolling average at the Partnership level, against a credit facility covenant of 2.5 to 1. Interest coverage is 23.87 times against a covenant of 3 to 1.

Chart: Pizza Pizza Royalty dividends per share, 2021 to 2025, from the FY2023 and FY2025 MD&A Selected Financial Highlights tables. The 2020 cut sits before this window and the 2026 cut after it.

Source document: Pizza Pizza Royalty Q2 2026 MD&A.

Verdict. Do not score this one as though a payout near 100 per cent were a warning. It is the stated design: the company’s policy is “to distribute all available cash in order to maximize returns to shareholders over time, after allowing for reasonable reserves.” A royalty corporation with one asset and almost no capital needs is built to pass the money through.

The meaningful signal is not the level of the ratio but what happened when it ran above the target. Through 2024 and 2025 the payout exceeded 100 per cent while the working capital reserve was drawn down, and that is what forced the cut. On May 15, 2026 the board reduced the monthly dividend from $0.0775 to $0.0675, a 12.9 per cent reduction and the first cut since 2020. Chair Neil Lester was unusually direct about why: “While we are closely monitoring the factors impacting System Sales across all segments, the use of the Company’s cash reserves over the past two years was a trend that could not be sustained indefinitely.”

At 102 per cent the ratio is now back near target, but the underlying driver has not turned. Same-store sales growth, which the MD&A calls “the key driver of yield growth,” was negative 5.0 per cent in the second quarter of 2026, which the company attributes to “the current economic situation and its impact on consumer discretionary spending, as well as heightened competition.” The working capital reserve has fallen to $2.2 million from $3.7 million at year end 2025. Management states that it “will continue to closely monitor sales and royalty income to determine when additional dividend adjustments may be warranted.” That sentence is the risk, stated by the company, in the company’s own words.

16. Allied Properties REIT (AP-UN.TO): 105.7 per cent of AFFO, after a 60 per cent cut

Yield on the declared rate: 9.06 per cent. Monthly distribution of $0.06 per unit, declared September 15, 2026, annualising to $0.72.

Coverage: 105.7 per cent AFFO payout ratio excluding condominium-related items, financing prepayment costs and the mark-to-market adjustment on unit-based compensation, for the three months ended June 30, 2026. Company-stated, and it is the version Allied leads with. On the standard AFFO definition it is 104.5 per cent. For the six months the figures are 96.7 and 99.6 per cent respectively, and for the year ended December 31, 2025 the headline version was 99.3 per cent. On any of the four measures Allied publishes, the distribution was not covered by AFFO in the June quarter.

The FFO payout ratio of 74.1 per cent looks much better and should be kept separate deliberately. FFO does not deduct leasing costs or maintenance capital, which is exactly where an office REIT’s cash goes when it is re-leasing vacant space. The two ratios diverge by more than 31 points in the quarter and that gap is the leasing expenditure. The FFO ratio also fell sharply year over year only because the distribution was cut by 60 per cent, not because FFO improved: FFO fell 31.1 per cent to $47,520 thousand and FFO per unit fell 50.8 per cent to $0.243.

The company’s own target: none numeric. Allied’s stated position is worth reading in full: “Allied reviews the level and sustainability of its distributions quarterly. In the near term, the current excess of distributions over cash available to Allied is expected to continue, but to improve as proceeds from dispositions support deleveraging and lease-up activity contributes to the economic productivity of the portfolio.” The nearest thing to a hard limit is a credit agreement covenant rather than a policy: “Maintain restricted payments below 100% of FFO for four consecutive quarters,” which stood at 82.2 per cent at June 30, 2026 against 90.2 per cent at December 31, 2025.

Leverage: 12.00 times net debt to annualized adjusted EBITDA at June 30, 2026, improved from 12.3 times at the first quarter, with the company guiding to the “Mid-11x range” by year end. Interest coverage is 2.0 times on a twelve-month trailing basis and the total indebtedness ratio 49.8 per cent against a covenant threshold below 60 per cent.

Chart: Allied Properties distributions per unit, fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2026, from the 2024 and 2025 Annual Information Forms and the Q2 2026 Quarterly Report. FY2026 is the declared plan of $0.72 and nine months of declarations, not a completed year.

Source document: Allied Properties Q2 2026 Quarterly Report.

Verdict. The other pole of this page, and the reason a yield screen alone is dangerous. Allied cut its distribution by 60 per cent on December 1, 2025, “With a view to reducing indebtedness and associated interest expense going forward,” taking the annualised rate from $1.80 to $0.72. Ten months later the distribution is still not covered by AFFO, and the trust states that the excess “is expected to continue.”

It funds the gap partly with capital. The MD&A states that “For the three and six months ended June 30, 2026, Allied elected to provide distributions partly representing a return of capital in order to maintain the stability of distribution levels,” and that any excess over cash from operating activities “may represent a return of capital and would then be funded by the Unsecured Facility.” Cash provided by operating activities of $30,953 thousand in the quarter was below distributions declared of $35,236 thousand.

The balance sheet is the rest of the story. Net debt to annualized adjusted EBITDA at 12.0 times is extreme for the asset class. Net loss in the quarter was $744,702 thousand, investment properties fell from $9,297,966 thousand to $7,065,795 thousand year over year, and NAV per unit fell from $38.97 to $18.97. Unitholders’ equity headroom against the minimum covenant narrowed to $3,597,585 thousand against a threshold of $3,201,820 thousand plus 75 per cent of future equity issuances. The 2027 maturity of $756.0 million, including $700.0 million of debentures at a 3.79 per cent weighted coupon, refinances into a higher rate environment than it was struck in. The covenant that binds the distribution directly is the restricted payment ratio at 82.2 per cent, and it tests against FFO rather than AFFO, which is why it is not breached at a 105.7 per cent AFFO payout. It is nonetheless the covenant to watch. CEO Cecilia Williams describes the position as “steady execution and tangible progress against our three-year outlook.”

The two poles, side by side

Strip out the two phantom yields and the real spread on this page runs from Cogeco to Allied Properties, and the yields barely tell them apart.

Cogeco pays 6.94 per cent on a 30 per cent free cash flow payout, with no cut and no freeze anywhere in the five-year record, at 3.2 times leverage.

Allied Properties pays about 9 per cent on a 105.7 per cent AFFO payout, at 12.0 times net debt to EBITDA, funding part of the gap with capital, having already cut 60 per cent in December 2025.

Two and a bit percentage points of yield separate them. Everything else about them is different. That is the case for this page in two sentences.

In between, Alaris, Freehold, Open Text and Peyto sit comfortably, each below or near its own stated position and none of them straining. Gibson has run past its own 70 to 80 per cent target, says so in its own release and gives a specific, testable reason. And the royalty vehicles, Pizza Pizza and Diversified Royalty, pay out near everything by design: scoring them against a 60 per cent benchmark would be scoring them against a target they never set and never wanted.

You have a shortlist. Here is where to act on it. Any of the names on this page can be bought in a TFSA, an RRSP or a taxable account through a Canadian discount broker, and several of them pay monthly rather than quarterly. Open a Questrade account Affiliate link. We may earn a commission if you open and fund an account, at no additional cost to you. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy any security.

SmartCentres and RioCan: the same payout ratio, two different businesses

The screen puts SmartCentres and RioCan within 1.3 percentage points of each other on trailing yield, and their AFFO payout ratios sit within three points of each other, at 86.7 and 89.5 per cent. Read only those two pairs of numbers and they are the same investment. They are not, and the difference is what each one is doing with the cash it retains. Both are retail landlords, and our ranking of retail REIT stocks across North America measures them against the largest American names on five-year return rather than on yield.

RioCan has stopped building. Its MD&A is explicit: “The Trust discontinued all new mixed-use construction starts as of 2023 and is winding down mixed-use development spend in 2026, with remaining capital expenditures limited to the completion of existing projects.” Roughly 90 per cent of Core AFFO goes out the door as distributions, and the remaining 10 per cent is not being committed to a development pipeline.

SmartCentres is still building. Its Q2 2026 MD&A records $714.7 million of net development commitment outstanding, of which $600.3 million is uncommitted and deferrable and $114.4 million is committed. Its stated strategy is “the build-out of our development pipeline,” and its distributions have been flat since October 2019 while that pipeline has been funded.

That is a real fork for an income investor and it is not visible in a yield column. One trust is paying out nearly everything and shrinking its commitments. The other is paying out nearly the same proportion while carrying a development programme alongside it, which is a claim on future cash that RioCan has deliberately given up. Neither choice is wrong. They are different bets, and the $600.3 million of deferrable commitment is SmartCentres’ own stated flexibility if it needs it.

We are not going to re-rank Canadian REITs here, because we already do it properly elsewhere. The full ranked set, judged on distribution safety rather than yield, is on our page covering Canadian REITs.

Where a high yield belongs: TFSA, RRSP or taxable

This is the part most yield lists skip, and skipping it can cost more than the difference between two names on this page.

Not all of these payments are the same kind of income. Several of the companies above declare an eligible dividend: Cogeco declares “a quarterly eligible dividend,” and Fiera states plainly that “The dividend is an eligible dividend for income tax purposes.” An eligible dividend from a Canadian corporation attracts the dividend tax credit in a taxable account, which is why a Canadian dividend can be the most tax-efficient income a Canadian resident earns outside a registered plan.

A REIT distribution is not an eligible dividend. Allied Properties, SmartCentres and RioCan are trusts, not corporations, and what they pay out is a trust distribution. It does not carry the dividend tax credit, and a single distribution can combine other income, capital gains, foreign income and return of capital, each taxed its own way. Allied’s own MD&A is a good illustration of why this matters: it states that it “elected to provide distributions partly representing a return of capital,” and a return of capital is not taxed as income when you receive it. It reduces your cost base instead, which surfaces later as a larger capital gain. Holding a REIT in a taxable account means tracking that.

A US-dollar dividend is a third case again. Open Text and Algonquin both declare in US dollars, so the amount you receive in Canadian dollars moves with the exchange rate, and there may be withholding considerations depending on the account.

The mechanics of all three, with the actual treatment set out properly, are in our guide to how investment income is taxed in Canada. Read that before you decide which account gets which name, because the order you fill your accounts in is close to a free return.

Three practical pointers from here:

• If you are working out how much contribution room you have and what the withdrawal rules do to it, start with our explainer on how a TFSA works. The rules on re-contributing a withdrawal catch out more income investors than any other single thing.
• For names chosen specifically to sit inside a tax-free account, we keep a separate ranking of the best stocks for a TFSA, and for a retirement account where the tax treatment of foreign income differs, the best stocks for an RRSP.
• And if the question you actually have is “what does this yield pay me per month,” run the numbers rather than guessing. Our dividend income calculator turns a position size and a yield into a monthly and annual figure, which is a faster way to find out whether a 6 per cent yield on the amount you have available is worth the single-name risk.

Frequently asked questions

What is the highest dividend stock on the TSX?

It depends entirely on whether you mean the highest screened yield or the highest yield actually being paid. On a trailing basis as at 2026-09-23, TELUS screens highest in our tracked universe at 11.83 per cent, but it cut its dividend 55 per cent on July 30, 2026 and the declared rate is a yield of 6.20 per cent. Of the sixteen companies we checked against their own declaration notices, the highest yield on a currently declared rate was Fiera Capital at 9.93 per cent, followed by Allied Properties at about 9 per cent. Both come with the specific risks set out in their sections above.

What is a good dividend yield in Canada?

The median yield among the 107 dividend payers in our tracked universe of 143 Canadian companies above C$1 billion is 2.57 per cent as at 2026-09-23. Only 43 names clear 3 per cent, 30 clear 4 per cent, 17 clear 5 per cent and 7 clear 6 per cent. So anything above about 4 per cent is already in the top fifth of Canadian payers, and anything above 6 per cent is in a group of seven names that is overwhelmingly real estate and telecom. A yield well above the median is not automatically a problem, but it is always a question, and the question is the coverage.

Are high-yield stocks safe?

Some are and some are not, and the yield alone will not tell you which. On this page, Cogeco pays 6.94 per cent on a 30 per cent free cash flow payout with an unbroken record of annual raises, and Allied Properties pays about 9 per cent on a 105.7 per cent AFFO payout at 12.0 times net debt to EBITDA after already cutting 60 per cent. Two percentage points of yield separate them and nothing else does. The other safety issue is the one this page opens with: a very high screened yield is sometimes a dividend that has already been cut, and those are the two most dangerous entries on any Canadian yield screen right now.

How do I know if a dividend is safe?

Three checks, in order, and all three use documents the company publishes free.

1. Find the most recent dividend declaration notice and multiply the rate out yourself. This catches every stale screener yield, which is the single biggest error on this page’s subject.
2. Find the payout ratio the company itself publishes, on the measure its sector uses: distributable cash flow for midstream, AFFO for REITs, funds from operations for royalty vehicles and producers, free cash flow for telecom. Ignore the payout ratio on a free screener, which is usually struck against accounting earnings and is close to meaningless for these businesses.
3. Compare that ratio to the target the company set for itself, not to somebody else’s ratio. Half the companies on this page publish no target at all, and knowing that a company will not tell you what proportion of its cash it intends to pay out is itself a piece of information.

Do the Canadian banks pay high dividends?

Not by the standard of this page, and that surprises people. Not one Canadian bank appears among the 30 highest trailing yields in our tracked universe as at 2026-09-23. Only one financial services name of any kind clears 4 per cent, and none clears 5 per cent, against 14 real estate names above 4 per cent.

The Big Six on that date: Bank of Nova Scotia 3.41 per cent, Bank of Montreal 2.75 per cent, CIBC 2.62 per cent, Toronto-Dominion 2.57 per cent, National Bank 2.46 per cent and Royal Bank 2.43 per cent. The median dividend payer in the whole universe yields 2.57 per cent, so three of the six sit at or below the middle of the market. The highest of them, Bank of Nova Scotia, ranks 37th of the 107 payers, well outside the table above. Canadian bank dividends have a deserved reputation for durability, but durability and size are different properties, and the banks are not where the high yields are.

Should I hold high-yield stocks in a TFSA?

A TFSA shelters the income completely, which is the strongest argument for putting the highest-yielding Canadian names there. The counter-argument is that a Canadian eligible dividend is already tax-advantaged in a taxable account through the dividend tax credit, while foreign income and interest are not, so there is an argument for using scarce TFSA room on the income that would otherwise be taxed hardest. The more important point is the one people miss: if a high-yield name falls sharply inside a TFSA, you cannot claim the capital loss, and the contribution room you used is gone for that year. Concentration risk and tax shelter interact. Our TFSA guide and our guide to how investment income is taxed cover both sides properly.

What if I do not want to pick individual names?

That is a completely reasonable answer to everything above. The entire point of this page is that a high yield needs a filing-level check on one company at a time, and doing that work sixteen times over is not everyone’s idea of a weekend. If you would rather own the income without the single-name risk, dividend and income ETFs do the diversification for you at a published fee, and we cover the Canadian options on our page on the best Canadian ETFs.

The final word

The single most useful finding on this page is not a stock. It is that the trailing yield on your screener is right about seven-eighths of the time, to within a tenth of a percentage point, and wrong in exactly one situation: when a dividend has just been reset. That is the situation where a stale number is most likely to be sitting at the top of your screen, because the cut collapsed the price and pushed the name to the top. TELUS and Transcontinental are the two live examples on the TSX today, and together they account for 12.3 points of yield that nobody is being paid.

Remove them and the real high-yield end of the Canadian market is small, concentrated in real estate and telecom, and enormously varied on the only measure that matters. Cogeco at a 30 per cent payout and Allied Properties at 105.7 per cent are both “high-yield Canadian stocks.” They are not remotely the same proposition.

The habit worth taking away is two minutes long. Before you buy any high yielder: read the declaration notice, find the company’s own payout ratio, and compare it to the company’s own target. If there is no target, note that too. Everything on this page came out of documents that any investor can download for free, and none of it came out of a screener.

Data as of September 23, 2026. Prices and trailing yields from Yahoo Finance; USDCAD of 1.4084 is the 2026-09-23 close. All coverage ratios, leverage figures and dividend histories are from each company’s own filings as cited in the relevant section, for the periods stated. Figures identified as computed are our arithmetic on the company’s own cited inputs.