Alberta Premier Danielle Smith Floats Tax Discounts to Motivate Women to Produce More Babies

Could a European far-right leader’s plan to cut immigration by offering tax discounts to motivate women to produce more babies work in Alberta?

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says a policy introduced by Hungary’s ultranationalist leader Viktor Orbán is an “interesting” idea and thinks it would be worth taking a “closer look” to see if the policy could be effective in her province.

Speaking at a Wednesday night town hall in Sherwood Park, Smith invited a discussion on the topic of immigration and fielded questions from the audience.

One town hall participant, identifying himself as “Chad” from Edmonton, said he had a problem with immigration and declining birth rates and wanted to know if the premier had any thoughts on how to boost birth rates, including how to persuade people who don’t want children to start having babies:

“My question is in regards to immigration, but it could be looped into tax in some ways. One of the reasons that we immigrate a lot of people to this country is due to the lack of people having kids and filling the labour market with what we need. A long-term solution would be, ideally, to have more kids to fulfill those positions. Anyways, is there any policies that could be implemented to encourage young families to have kids that either can’t afford to have kids or that don’t want to have kids currently but might be persuaded to have kids in the future?”

Smith responded by pointing to Orbán’s policies in Hungary, suggesting it’s been “the most interesting” solution she’s heard of:

“I guess the most interesting one that I’ve seen is in Hungary where, if I understand it, they allow for women, when they have one baby, they have a 20% discount on their personal income tax, when they have two babies, they get a 40% discount, when they have five babies, they don’t pay income tax the rest of their lives.”

After a scattered mix of applause and jeers, Smith clarified: “I don’t know that we could do that in an integrated system.”

“I’d have to take a closer look to see if it’s had the impact that you’ve said, of increasing the birth rate.”

“You could always cancel your cable,” quipped Bruce McAllister, the event’s emcee and the executive director of the Premier’s Office.

Despite offering women a range of financial incentives to have more children — most notably a full exemption from income tax for those raising at least four — Hungary’s pro-natalist tax policies have failed to reverse the country’s declining birthrates.

One report from the EU Commission notes the policy is structured to benefit “highly-paid mothers” and therefore “mostly favours well-off families” — “clearly the higher the family income, the greater the benefit from the various family-related measures.”

Orbán, who is widely regarded as authoritarian and one of Europe’s most far-right political leaders, is currently struggling ahead of planned elections in 2026. Earlier this year, Orbán announced plans to expand his pro-natalist tax policies by offering full tax exemptions to all mothers who have two or more children.

In the EU parliament, Orbán’s governing party, Fidesz, is in a parliamentary group with far-right allies like Marine LePen of France’s Rassemblement National, Geert Wilders of the Netherlands’ Partij voor de Vrijheid and Spain’s Vox party.