GRAND FORKS - Government officials are telling North Dakota residents not to worry about a proposal that would require passports for travel between the United States and Canada.

Plans are being made to develop other documents that are less costly and more effective, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said at a hearing here Tuesday.

"We're not going to propose something that doesn't make sense for North Dakota," said Robert Mocny, who's helping to develop a new system to track visitors in and out of the country.

Area residents are worried that a passport rule would hurt business and personal dealings between the two countries. Judith Johnson, an owner of the Frost Fire ski resort near Walhalla, said 80 percent of her business comes from Canada.

"They decide sometimes at the last minute they're going to come," Johnson said. "For them to up and decide they have to come and think, OK, do I have my passport … they're not going to be there."

It also could strain relationships between friends and relatives from the two countries, Walhalla Mayor Pat Hardy said. His town is located five miles from the Canadian border.

"We know them on a first name basis," Hardy said. "They're not terrorists, they're not crooks."

The government earlier this month upheld its plans to require the passports by 2008. But other proposals are likely, said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

"You don't want the issue of potential passports to hang out there for months and months and months," said Dorgan, who conducted the hearing. "That itself has a dampening effect."

Mocny said one idea would be a border crossing card that could be obtained after meeting documentation requirements. It could also include radio frequency technology, he said.

"I think we have an opportunity to make the borders more efficient than they were on Sept. 10, 2001," Mocny said.

Hal Gershman, president of the Grand Forks city council, said the number of vehicles traveling into North Dakota from Canada decreased 37 percent from 1990 to 2004. The exchange rate for money has remained steady in that time, he said.

"We need to make it easier, not more difficult, for Canadians to come to the United States," Gershman said.

Gershman said Canadian business owners who are being recruited to Grand Forks would be irritated about showing passports at the border.

Representatives from American Indian casinos near Devils Lake and Hankinson testified about the importance of Canadian customers, as did city representatives from Grafton and Cavalier.

"There's got to be a better solution," said Cavalier mayor Ron Storie.