As a Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative-compliant travel document, an EDL may be used for "official purposes" (such as boarding a domestic flight) covered by the U.S. Real ID Act.[3] Unlike EDLs, REAL ID-compliant licenses alone are not sufficient to cross international borders even if a state gives its REAL ID-compliant licenses a similar name.[10]
Canada
As of August 2022[update], no Canadian province or territory is issuing EDLs and the program will terminate in the country once the validity of all existing EDLs lapse. Previously, EDLs were available to Canadian citizens residing in British Columbia,[11]Manitoba,[12]Ontario,[13] and Quebec.[2][14] Between 2008 and 2009, the Saskatchewan government spent approximately $600,000 to develop EDLs for the province. However after nearly a year into development, the Bill to codify EDLs into provincial law was voted down after an investigation by the Province's Privacy Commissioner and none were ever issued.[15]
After running an EDL program for five years, Quebec discontinued the cards program on 30 September 2014 citing low demand as the reason. All Quebec EDLs have expired by 2019.[16] Ontario terminated the program in June 2019 as a government initiative to save costs, although existing EDLs remain valid until their expiration dates.[17] British Columbia announced in early 2021 that the province would be phasing out EDLs and no new applications would be accepted from 18 January 2021 for similar reasons.[18] In February 2021, Manitoba, the last province that was still accepting new applications, announced that it would be discontinuing the enhanced driver's licences and enhanced identification cards in 2022.[19] The province terminated the program in June 2022 and no new cards would be produced.[20]
