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Enmax declared its lowest dividend, to be paid to the City of Calgary, in four years in its 2025 financial results.<\/p>\n
But the company and city council members hope it will mean more value for Calgarians by supporting infrastructure costs and lead to more sustainable fiscal planning.<\/p>\n
Enmax presented its annual report to city council\u2019s audit committee on Thursday. It declared a dividend of $64 million, which is a 47-per-cent drop from a record high $103-million mark the year prior<\/a>, and the lowest dividend it’s declared since sending $62 million four years ago.<\/p>\n Last year’s dividend drop was the first time the total hadn’t risen from the previous year since its report in 2018<\/a>. <\/p>\n Enmax is forecasting a small increase to $66 million next year.<\/p>\n Once the dividend is declared, it’s paid to the city on a quarterly basis. Calgary city council then decides how that money is used. Last year, council directed $20 million from the dividend to community amenity upgrades.<\/p>\n This year’s decreased dividend is the result of a new policy Enmax\u2019s board approved last year, said the company’s president and CEO Mark Poweska. Instead of in-year earnings, the dividend is now based off a 10-year average, growing by steady, annual increases.<\/p>\n Poweska said the new policy gives Enmax more cash to invest in Calgary’s electrical infrastructure as the city grows.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are using the money that we\u2019re earning and retaining to reinvest in the infrastructure in Calgary to ensure that you have long-term reliable power for the future,\u201d said Poweska.<\/p>\n Councillor wants stability in Enmax dividends<\/p>\n Ward 6 Coun. John Pantazopoulos said he\u2019s not concerned about the dividend drop, because the company’s new policy can lead to more sustainable fiscal planning. He said if the figure had continued to rise above $100 million, there would have been potential for a substantial unplanned drop in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we want is stability. We don\u2019t want to have a situation that goes from 100 to 60 to 200 to zero, and it bounces around, because we can\u2019t manage a city like that,\u201d said Pantazopoulos.<\/p>\n He said the money will go toward the city’s revenue, which will help support future infrastructure spending.<\/p>\n The overall value Enmax is providing is more important to Calgarians than a specific dividend figure, argued Mayor Jeromy Farkas. He questioned if the dividend amount paid out to the city was raised, but it resulted in higher rates for Calgarians, how much money this would save in the long term.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re never going to have a mayor and council who are ever going to be fully satisfied with the extent of what the dividend is. For me, it\u2019s very much focusing on making sure that we have good value for what Calgarians can pay,\u201d said Farkas.<\/p>\n Farkas suggests Versant sale<\/p>\n On Thursday, Farkas again raised the suggestion that Enmax consider selling the U.S. energy company Versant Power.<\/p>\n Versant is an electricity provider in Maine that Enmax acquired<\/a> in 2020 for $1.8 billion. Farkas recently suggested that funds from selling Versant could help cover costs associated with the Bearspaw feeder main replacement project<\/a>.<\/p>\n Farkas added that Enmax should show how owning a U.S. company is providing value for Calgarians, and focus on investing at home.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just puts council in an awkward position where you\u2019re being asked to serve almost two masters: balancing the needs of Calgarian ratepayers versus those half a world away,\u201d said Farkas.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Poweska said Versant provides good value for the city. The dividend Enmax receives from Versant translates to part of what the utility company pays to the City of Calgary.<\/p>\n Poweska said the company\u2019s board hasn\u2019t discussed or analyzed divesting from Versant.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a strategic investment to diversify out of a single regulatory jurisdiction, which we were in Calgary,\u201d said Poweska. \u201cAnd it continues to grow. It\u2019s a good investment for us, and it does provide value back to the people of Calgary and to Enmax.”<\/p>\n Enmax primarily attributed increased earnings last year to better transmission and distribution margins for Versant Power. Enmax’s comparable net earnings increased to $440 million in 2025, compared to $343 million the year before.<\/p>\n Farkas said that while it’s an open question what council would like Enmax to do about Versant, there’s no proposal on the floor currently to suggest a sale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-548923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}