By Associated Press
Buffalo, NY – The looming requirement that Americans show a passport or similar alternative when returning from Canada took center stage at a summit of US and Canadian tourism officials in Niagara Falls.
Tamara Conway of the Department of Homeland Security says those with passports will be able to show those at the border, but everyone else will have to have a pass card to travel between the two countries.
What form those pass cards will take and how much they'll cost is still up in the air.
Tourism officials say that uncertainty is already hurting them.
Randy Williams of the Tourism Association of Canada says American and Canadian convention planners are hesitant to book future events across the border without knowing details about how the new requirement will work. He says Americans are already staying away from Canada, wrongly believing they need a passport to get in.
The new identification requirement takes effect at land borders January 1, 2008.