Ontario residents will soon be able to use an enhanced driver's licence in place of a passport when crossing the border into the United States.
Ontario legislators -- minus the New Democrats -- voted Tuesday to offer the enhanced licenses as an alternative to passports.
The high-tech licence will be embedded with a radio frequency identification chip that can be scanned at border crossings.
British Columbia already offers similar licenses to its residents who don't wish to obtain passports -- which take longer to process and are more costly.
According to the NDP, the system is so prone to fraud that the federal government declined to follow a similar route.
"The government is trying to make us believe that they can develop this system, that it's safe and will not be open to fraud," said NDP critic Gilles Bisson. "The federal government has already decided not to go this route because of the privacy concerns."
Transportation minister Jim Bradley says the government has listened two critics and will ensure border agents are only able to access necessary information from the cards.
With files from The Canadian Press
