The Globe and Mail attempts to identify high, sustainable and growing dividends among Canadian companies in its Tuesday, Aug. 29, edition. The Globe's guest columnist Jean-Didier LaPointe writes in the Number Cruncher column that he screened for companies with a minimum market capitalization of $500-million. Mr. LaPointe looked for an economic performance index, or EPI (return on capital divided by cost of capital) greater than 1. An EPI ratio of 1 or more indicates a company's capacity to create wealth for its shareholders (a higher EPI displays a greater rate of wealth creation). His picks had to have a return on capital of 10 per cent or higher. His picks also needed to have a dividend payout of 100 per cent or lower and a dividend yield of 2 per cent or higher. As well, he looked for increasing earnings per share over 12 months. Mr. LaPointe's Canadian companies with growing dividends are Magna International, Power Financial, Intact Financial, Power Corp. of Canada, Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services, Transcontinental and First National Financial.