A birth certificate is not photo ID.
Yes a passport is one of "prescribed photo identification" as it is photo ID issued by the gov't of Canada. For myself, I think I'll start carrying my PAL with me. It's federally issued photo ID and in case of accident, I value it less than my BC enhanced driver's license
until some of the security improvements brought on by 9-11, Passports were not considered terribly reliable as they were easily produced via counterfeit means. At that time they would not, for example get you admitted into any high security institution whereas a DL or Provincial Id would provided it was backed by a 2nd piece of id.