Canadian Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRIPs)

I last wrote about the Mergent's Dividend Achievers list in January 2008. However, since then Mergent's has changed their hyperlink to the list. As such, I have included the proper link in this post and on the Blog Roll below.

Every year Mergents compiles a list of companies, royalty income trusts and REITs from Canada that have increased their dividends for five consecutive years or more. The 2009 Canadian version now has 71 constituents, up from the 46 I reported last year. This increase was not an easy feat given the troubling economic times we now find ourselves in.

Stalwarts like The Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS), The Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO), Fortis Incorporated (TSX:FTS) and TransCanada Corporation (TSX:TRP) are consistently on the list. However, several income trust funds that also have dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs) find themselves on the list including Canadian Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX:REF.UN), Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX:CUF.UN) and Keyera Facilities Income Fund (TSX:KEY.UN)

Mergent's have also published another index called the Canadian High Yield Dividend Growth 30 Portfolio. To be included, companies must trade on a major stock exchange like the TSX, have five or more years of equal or increasing regular annual dividend payments, a minimum average daily cash volume of $3,000,000 USD and a current dividend yield of 1%. The 30 companies with the largest market cap as of the last trading day in December are chosen for inclusion.

This index could be useful for an investor who wants to invest their money in large cap firms only. The indexes are by no means identical as companies like George Weston Limited (TSX:WN) and Loblaws Ltd (TSX:L) exist in the latter list and not the former.

Finally, while most companies in the indexes have DRPs, not all do. This is why it is a good idea to compare the index's list of constituents to the List of Canadian DRIPs and SPPs on this site to see which companies offer a DRIP.

Well, it has been almost one year since my last major list update. I want to start out by apologizing for the delay. I have had good intentions of revising my dividend reinvestment (DRIP) list for several months now but something has always seemed to crop up. Recently, I have received a couple of inquiries as to whether I was ever going to update my list (thanks for taking the time to write!). It was then I realized that I needed to spend some time working on this.

So, I have compiled the following list of changes:

I have added the following new plans:
Canadian Oil Sands Trust (TSX:COS.UN) – DRIP reinstated
Corus Entertainment (TSX:CJR.B)
EnCana Corporation (TSX:ECA)
First National Financial LP (TSX:FN.UN)

I have deleted the following plans:
Boardwalk REIT (TSX:BEI.UN) - suspended
Brompton Equal Weight Income Fund (TSX:EWI.UN) – merged into Brompton VIP Income Fund (TSX:VIP.UN)
Brompton Stable Income Fund (TSX:BSR.UN) – merged into Brompton VIP Income Fund (TSX:VIP.UN)
Business Trust Equal Weight Income Fund (TSX:BWI.UN) – merged into Brompton VIP Income Fund (TSX:VIP.UN)
Builders Energy Services Trust (TSX:BET.UN) - merged into Essential Energy Services Trust (TSX:ESN.UN)
Crown Hill Dividend Fund (TSX:PBK.UN) – merged into Crown Hill Fund (TSX:MYT.UN)
Fairway Diversified Income and Growth Trust (TSX:FDT.UN) – merged into Crown Hill Fund (TSX:MYT.UN)
Flaherty & Crumrine Investment Grade Preferred Fund (TSX:FAC.UN) – merged into Flaherty & Crumrine Investment Grade Fixed Income Fund (TSX:FFI.UN)
Fording Canadian Coal Trust (TSX:FDG.UN) - bought out by Teck Cominco (TSE:TCK.A)
Foremost Income Fund (TSX:FMO.UN) - suspended
Newalta Income Fund (TSX:NAL.UN) - converted to corporation
Paramount Energy Trust (TSX:PMT.UN) - suspended
Sixty Plus Income Trust (TSX:SIX.UN) - trust terminated
Strategic Energy Fund (TSX:SEF.UN) - converted to an open-end mutual fund called Sentry Select Energy Income Fund
Superior Plus Income Fund (TSX:SPF.UN) - suspended
Trinidad Energy Services Income Trust (TSX:TDG.UN) - suspended
Vermillion Energy Trust (TSX:VET.UN) - suspended

I have updated the following plans:
Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO) – 2% discount added
Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS) – 2% discount added
Fortis Inc. (TSX:FTS) – maximum increased to $30,000; 2% discount added
NAL Oil & Gas Trust (TSX:NAE.UN) changed (DRIP suspended; SPP active)
Thomson Corporation – updated name and stock symbol to Thomson Reuters Corporation (TSX:TRI)
Toronto-Dominion Bank (TSX:TD) – 1% discount added
TransCanada Corporation (TSX:TRP) - discount increased to 3% in December

As well, I have verified that all of the company hyperlinks are working. They will again point the user to each company's DRIP information page.

While working on the blog I also had many ideas on how to improve it. So, I have created a list of additional items I wish to include and I will also be making constant improvements to the site over the next few weeks.

As always, if you see any discrepancies please post a comment.

Happing DRIPping,
Ken