The Globe and Mail attempts to identify sustainable dividend income from Canadian free cash-flow generators in its Tuesday edition. The Globe's Craig McGee writes in the Number Cruncher column that since the end of 2015, the Canadian market has staged an impressive comeback so far this year. A significant contribution of the returns have come from natural-resource sectors such as energy, metals and mining, but if we look deeper, we can also see that dividend-paying companies have been outperforming those without payouts. For instance, the S&P/TSX dividend composite total return index is up 16.9 per cent year-to-date while the full S&P/TSX composite total return index is up 14.8 per cent. Investors are often tempted by the highest yielding firms, but chasing high dividend yields alone could be very risky if those payouts are not sustainable. Firms that are able to generate and increase free cash flow, that is, operating cash flow left over after capital expenditures, may be in a better position to maintain their distributions. Mr. McGee's Canadian dividend firms with strong free cash flow are Cogeco Communications, IGM Financial, TMX Group, Enbridge Income Fund Holdings and BCE.