Passive income refers to earnings generated with minimal day-to-day involvement. However, it often requires a meaningful upfront investment of time or capital to create a sustainable, long-term cash flow stream. It can enhance financial stability, act as a hedge against inflation, and help accelerate the achievement of long-term financial goals.
In a low-interest-rate environment, investors may consider high-yield dividend stocks as an effective way to strengthen their passive income. With that in mind, here are my three top picks.
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SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust
First on my list is SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX:SRU.UN), which owns and operates 197 strategically located properties totalling 35.6 million square feet of gross leasable area. Approximately 90% of Canadians live within 10 kilometres of at least one of its properties. The REIT also benefits from a strong tenant base, with about 95% of tenants having a regional or national presence and roughly 60% providing essential services. Supported by its prime locations and diversified tenant mix, the Toronto-based REIT maintains healthy occupancy levels. Additionally, its same-property net operating income continues to rise, driven by solid customer traffic, lease-up activity, and renewals.
SmartCentres also has a substantial development pipeline of 86.2 million square feet of mixed-use projects, with around 0.8 million square feet currently under construction. Backed by its resilient, retail-focused portfolio and ongoing expansion initiatives, the REIT appears well-positioned to sustain and potentially grow its distributions. It currently pays a monthly dividend of $0.1542 per unit, yielding approximately 6.68%.
Enbridge
Another dividend stock that stands out for income-focused investors is Enbridge (TSX:ENB), supported by its highly contracted business model, stable cash flows, attractive yield, and visible growth pipeline. Approximately 98% of the company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) is generated from long-term take-or-pay contracts and regulated assets, with nearly 80% of those contracts indexed to inflation. This structure makes Enbridge’s financial performance relatively resilient to economic cycles and market volatility. Backed by consistent cash flows, the company has paid dividends for over 70 years and increased its payout for 31 consecutive years. It currently offers a forward yield of about 5.5%.
Looking ahead, the Calgary-based energy infrastructure giant has identified roughly $50 billion in growth opportunities over the next five years and plans to invest around $10 billion annually to advance these projects. Supported by this capital program and steady cash generation, management expects to return $40–$45 billion to shareholders over the next five years, reinforcing the sustainability of its future dividend payouts.
Telus
My final pick is TELUS (TSX: T), which recently reported solid 2025 results, highlighted by net customer additions of more than one million. Its revenue edged up 0.6% to $20.5 billion, supported by strong contributions from its TELUS Health segment, continued growth in mobile, residential internet, and security and automation subscribers, expansion in TELUS Digital, and higher revenue per customer in key residential services.
Adjusted EBITDA rose 0.3% to $7.35 billion, while free cash flow increased 11% year over year to $2.21 billion. The company also strengthened its balance sheet, with its net debt-to-EBITDA ratio (after adjustments) improving to 3.4 from 3.9 a year earlier.
Looking ahead, the ongoing digitization of business processes and the broader adoption of artificial intelligence present meaningful long-term growth opportunities. TELUS plans to invest approximately $2.3 billion this year to expand and enhance its network and digital capabilities. Supported by these initiatives, management expects revenue and adjusted EBITDA to grow 2–4% this year, and projects consolidated free cash flow of about $2.45 billion, representing a roughly 10% year-over-year increase.
Although TELUS has paused its multi-year dividend growth program to prioritize balance sheet strength, it still offers an attractive forward dividend yield of around 9%, which may appeal to income-focused investors.
