The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, July 12, edition that bond investors are betting Canada's utilities will send them a steady flow of returns. A Bloomberg dispatch to The Globe reports that the bonds of Nova Scotia Power, a subsidiary of Emera, and Fortis are the top performers this year on the Merrill Lynch Canada corporate bond index. Their returns of 12.5 per cent and 11.7 per cent beat the weighted index average of 4.7 per cent, and proved enticing to investors looking for a balance of safety and yield. Many bond investors have been hurt from sinking money into Canada's energy sector, which has been suffering through a prolonged slump in commodities combined with slow global growth and risk events such as Brexit. Yet with government-debt yields at record lows the insatiable hunt for returns has continued, and the steady nature of the utility business has become a main draw. Beutel Goodman & Co. manager Sue McNamara says in a note: "If you're going to get the run-for-the-hills, risk-off sentiment, these are the names you're going to gravitate to. They're not going to be the most attractive spreads out there, but they're probably going to be some of the safest spreads."