Canadian travellers heading to the U.S. on trains, boats and automobiles will need valid passports starting June 1 as part of increased U.S. border security.

While Passport Canada has been speeding through a deluge of applications and processing about 20,000 new passports per day over the past few months, some travellers are running into serious snags during the application process.

Winnipeg's Sandy Gietz tried to apply for a passport on Wednesday but was rejected when she was told that her original birth certificate wasn't a valid form of identification.

"They say they couldn't accept it because it was signed 'the registrar' and not 'vital statistics,'" Gietz told CTV Winnipeg's Stacey Ashley Thursday.

"He said, 'I'm sorry, it's not valid, I can't use it.' And I said, 'what do you mean it's not valid? How can you say it's not a valid birth certificate?"

Apparently, in March, the province of Manitoba asked Passport Canada to stop accepting birth certificates issued before 1983.

But those changes were done quietly, leaving Gietz up against the wall for a family vacation to the U.S. slated for July 1.

Officials at Passport Canada told CTV Winnipeg Thursday that they may have failed to adequately notify the public about the new requirements. The officials also apologized for the inconvenience and stressed the requirements would be put on their website.

Meanwhile, the new national rules are part of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative and follow previous changes for air travel.

All travellers to the U.S. will be subject to the rules, with a few exceptions:

Canadian citizens 15-years-old and younger only need proof of citizenship such as a birth certificate or citizen card.

Canadians 18-years-old and younger travelling with a school or other group like a sports team can also cross with proof of citizenship, as long as they have parental consent.

Travellers may also enter the U.S. with a valid NEXUS card or enhanced driver's license.

Mexicans, Bermudans and other travellers from Caribbean countries will also be under the same rules as Canadians.

However, some Canadian authorities have been relatively slow to issue new enhanced drivers licenses compared to jurisdictions in the U.S.

For example, since January 2008, Washington state has issued 60,400 enhanced drivers licenses. The province of British Columbia, meanwhile, has issued zero.

But that will change this week, according to the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, when the new licenses are mailed out.

In Ontario, where about 35 million passenger cars cross the border every year, the Ministry of Transportation announced earlier this month that travellers could begin applying for the drivers licenses at an extra cost of $40.00.

With reports from CTV Winnipeg, CTV British Columbia, and files from The Canadian Press