Market corrections are tough to watch, but they also give self-directed Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) investors a chance to buy good Canadian dividend stocks at discounted prices.
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Bank of Nova Scotia
Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS) trades near $65.50 at the time of writing. The stock is down 15% in 2025 after staging a nice recovery in the final months of last year. It was as low as $60 at one point in the past 12 months.
Investors are trying to decide if Bank of Nova Scotia’s strategy shift will deliver good long-term returns for shareholders. The new chief executive officer is focusing new capital investments on opportunities in the United States and Canada and away from Latin America, where the bank previously invested billions of dollars to acquire banks and credit card portfolios in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and other countries in the regions.
Last year, Bank of Nova Scotia invested US$2.8 billion to buy a 14.9% stake in KeyCorp, an American regional bank. The move gives Bank of Nova Scotia a platform to expand its American presence. All of its large Canadian peers have expanded their U.S. reach in recent years, and their share prices have outperformed Bank of Nova Scotia.
In Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia is eyeing growth in Quebec. The bank created a new executive position last year to lead the initiative. Quebec is Canada’s second-largest provincial market by population.
The international business is also seeing some changes. Bank of Nova Scotia recently sold its operations in Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica. Additional monetization in the international group could be on the way as the bank evaluates the rest of the Latin American operations.
It will take time for the strategy shift to deliver results, but investors get paid well to wait. At the current share price, Bank of Nova Scotia provides a dividend yield of 6.5%.
Enbridge
Enbridge (TSX:ENB) is up 36% in the past year. The stock has benefitted from declining interest rates in the United States and Canada, as well as the completion of a major acquisition in the American market.
Enbridge, like all pipeline and utility companies, uses debt to help fund growth initiatives that can cost billions of dollars and sometimes take years to complete. The stock fell when the central banks raised rates in 2022 and 2023. Now that interest rates have come down, investors are more upbeat.
Enbridge has a $26 billion capital program on the go that will help raise adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) by 7% to 9% through 2026. The company will also get a boost from its US$14 billion purchase last year of three natural gas utilities in the United States.
Enbridge raised the dividend in each of the past 30 years. Investors who buy the stock at the current level can get a dividend yield of 6.1%
The bottom line on top TSX dividend stocks
Bank of Nova Scotia and Enbridge are good examples of TSX stocks that offer attractive dividends right now. If you have some cash to put to work in a self-directed RRSP, these stocks deserve to be on your radar.
