Canadian dividend stocks with a track record of consistent dividend growth, a resilient business model, a low-risk earnings base, and sustainable payouts are top investments for generating worry-free passive income. Thankfully, several TSX-listed stocks, such as Enbridge and Canadian National Railway, have paid and increased dividends for decades, making them reliable income stocks.
However, here I’ll focus on Fortis (TSX: FTS), which has a stellar track record of dividend growth, operates a defensive business model, and generates low-risk risk. This blue-chip company has solid fundamentals and offers visibility over future dividend growth. This makes Fortis an attractive choice for investors seeking consistent income and stability.
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Fortis’s stellar dividend-growth history
Fortis operates 10 regulated electric and gas utilities in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean, serving approximately 3.5 million customers. The electric utility company generates most of its earnings from its diversified portfolio of rate-regulated assets and thus remains relatively insulated from market volatility. It focuses on energy transmission and distribution, which carries lower risk.
Thanks to its regulated operations, Fortis generates predictable and low-risk earnings, which enable it to reward investors with higher dividend payments consistently. Fortis has raised its distributions for 51 years and currently offers a decent yield of 3.8%.
Fortis to increase its future dividends
Fortis remains committed to rewarding its shareholders with reliable and higher dividends in the coming years. The company’s defensive business model, sustainable regulated growth strategy, and secured capital plan will likely generate higher earnings, supporting higher payouts in the future.
The company is off to a solid start in 2025. In the first quarter, Fortis invested $1.4 billion into its utility systems, accounting for 27% of its full-year capital plan. Furthermore, its $26 billion five-year capital plan focuses on key areas, including transmission infrastructure, Arizona’s clean energy transition, and system upgrades to support growing customer demand. These investments put Fortis on track for solid long-term growth.
Looking ahead, Fortis expects its rate base to grow by $14 billion, reaching $53 billion by 2029. This growth supports an average annual rate base increase of 6.5%, which, in turn, will drive earnings and will support annual dividend growth of 4-6% through 2029.
Fortis will also benefit from significant investments in transmission and energy transition projects. The company is upgrading its infrastructure to meet the rising demand from energy-intensive sectors, such as data centres, manufacturing, and mining. These high-usage customers offer significant long-term growth opportunities, further strengthening Fortis’s ability to deliver higher dividends to shareholders.
Earn $1,000/year
Fortis’s reliable dividend payments and resilient business model make it a top-income stock. Moreover, the utility industry is going through significant changes driven by the need for energy security, the shift to cleaner energy sources, and rising electricity demand from data centres, manufacturing, and electrification. These trends are opening up substantial growth opportunities, and Fortis is well-positioned to capitalize on them through its high-quality utility businesses.
With Fortis currently offering an annual dividend of $2.46 per share, the table shows that you would need to own 407 shares of the company to earn $250.31 quarterly or over $1,000 per year in dividend income.
| Company | Recent Price | Number of Shares | Dividend | Total Payouts | Frequency |
| Fortis | $64.42 | 407 | $0.615 | $250.31 | Quarterly |
