VANCOUVER - People in B.C. will soon be able to get a high-tech driver's licence that could be used as an alternative to a passport to cross into the U.S. by land and sea.
The licences are part of a project involving the province, the state of Washington and the federal government, and were unveiled in Vancouver by Premier Gordon Campbell and federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.
The cards will look much like current licences but will be embedded with a coded computer chip that can be scanned at border crossings.
The card can only be used at land and sea crossings and passports will still be required to fly into the U.S.
The new licence program will begin as a pilot project with 500 of the enhanced licences being offered to volunteers who are Canadian citizens, born in B.C., who already hold a valid driver's licence and B.C. birth certificate.
Once an assessment is done on the pilot project, the new licences could be rolled out to all British Columbians later this year.
