The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that BCE is a member of the S&P/TSX Canadian Dividend Aristocrats Index, and aggressively so: BCE has increased payouts by 5 per cent annually for a decade. The Globe's David Milstead writes that it's all over now, baby Bell. BCE's underwhelming 2023 results have forced the company's board to dial back the dividend growth to 3.1 per cent for 2024. Mr. Milstead believes that cutting the dividend, not increasing it, would be the responsible thing to do because BCE simply has not been generating the cash to cover it. The right amount of profits or annual cash generation to send to shareholders is in the range of 50 per cent to 75 per cent. In pretty much any of various payout measures, however, BCE is uncomfortably above Telus and Rogers Communications, its peers. And by most of them, BCE is making unsustainable payouts. The company's 2023 dividends equalled 162 per cent of reported net income, the fourth straight year above 100 per cent and the 11th straight year above 80 per cent, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. BCE's dividends also exceeded the company's free cash flow in seven of the last nine years, including a 130-per-cent payout rate in 2023.