FREDERICTON — As quickly as provinces seemed to be jumping on the Enhanced Driver’s Licence (EDL) bandwagon, now they’re jumping off.

New Brunswick has followed in the recently blazed trail of Saskatchewan and opted not to continue with plans to develop an EDL for cross-border travel.

Under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, Canadians traveling to the U.S. as of June 2009 will require a passport or other secure identification, which does include the FAST card. The requirements are already in place for air travel.

With just under two months until the U.S. implements new identification standards for entering their country by land or sea, the once popular idea of establishing an EDL to satisfy border guards has been pushed to the wayside.

In New Brunswick, the provincial government decided not to move forward with the initiative saying the cost would likely be the same as a passport.

"Various research done on this issue (shows) the cost to residents would be almost as much as a passport," a government official told the Times & Transcript.

A passport costs $87, plus the cost of photos.

Last year, the government surveyed New Brunswickers on whether they would use an EDL and 37 percent said “yes” – if it cost about $10.

Developing the EDL would have required a specific material for the card, an overhaul of the application process, as well as cost of production. The official wasn’t sure of the start-up cost, the ongoing cost to the province would have been in the $750,000 range.

B.C. and Quebec have already developed an EDL, while Manitoba is working on an Enhanced ID card that is expected to eventually lead to an EDL. The enhanced cards include a microchip that stores information, such as proof of citizenship, which is the main requirement of the WHTI.

The EDLs came under fire from a civil liberty group saying the information being recorded could lead to a "privacy nightmare."