TORONTO - Canadians should "get ready" to show passports next year at all land and sea crossings into the United States despite efforts on both sides of the border to extend the deadline, U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins said Thursday.

Congress has granted a June 2009 extension, and Canadian officials continue to press for a reprieve from the original January 2008 implementation date, but U.S. Homeland Security and State Department officials want to bring the rule into effect sooner rather than later. Wilkins, during a speech on U.S.-Canada relations, said he believes the current American administration will accomplish that goal.

"It could be implemented as soon as January. ... I believe it will happen sometime during this administration," Wilkins said.

"I believe we need to get ready for it and so, simply put, the message I try to give to Americans and to Canadians is, 'Get a passport.' It's that simple."

The air travel component of the passport law, known as the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, went into effect Jan. 23 for people flying into the United States.

Travellers must carry either a valid passport, a NEXUS card reserved for frequent travellers, a U.S. merchant mariners card or permanent resident card. Members of the U.S. armed forces are exempt.

The new air rules apply to Canadians and Americans entering and leaving the U.S., as well as people from Mexico and Bermuda.

However, only 27 per cent of Americans hold passports.

Worried that the new rules will slow down trade and tourism, a contingent of Canadian premiers travelled to Washington earlier this week in an effort to push for passport alternatives.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Manitoba's Gary Doer and New Brunswick's Shawn Graham spent three days shoring up support for high-technology driver's licences as a stand-in for passports.

They also warned that a push to meet the January deadline will have "enormous" repercussions for the two countries.

On Thursday, Wilkins called the driver's licence plan a "continuing work in progress."

"The question is, will enhanced driver's licences be ready to go and the technology ready to be implemented by the time the land portions are implemented?" Wilkins said following his speech.

"We have to wait and see."

New York legislator Louise Slaughter, who chairs the rules committee in the House of Representatives that vets every piece of legislation, has become a powerful ally in the premiers' efforts to delay the new passport rules and explore other alternatives.

In February, Slaughter introduced a bill that would force U.S. officials to wait until June 2009 to fully consider a pilot project on driver's licences in British Columbia and Washington state, and analyze the costs and benefits of passports and an alternative ID card for Americans dubbed "passport lite."
 
 So far, U.S. officials have agreed to some concessions.

The U.S. Homeland Security Department issued a passport exemption last week for children 15 and under, and teens aged 16 to 18 travelling with schools, youth groups and sports teams and accompanied by an adult.

Wilkins acknowledged there are worries about unnecessary delays at the border, but said that won't happen if both countries work together.

"I think if we could all buy into it, and all get behind it, and all work to implement it smoothly, it will have the opposite effect," he said. "It will make it easier."

Border guards currently have to examine many different documents, from birth certificates to driver's licences, he said. Narrowing down that list of documents will actually speed up the process.

"It will facilitate trade and travel, not impede it," he said.

"There is no one in Washington, no one in the United States that wants to impede or do anything detrimental to this wonderful trade relationship we have with our friend Canada."