With the Alaska government onside and decades-old Canadian legislation favouring TransCanada, company vice-president Tony Palmer didn't come to Whitehorse yesterday to sell the Alaska Highway Pipeline so much as to trumpet what he believes is a fait accompli.

Speaking at the Yukon Inn to a lunch crowd who paid $25 for sandwiches, salad and a chance to hear Palmer, the pipeline czar delivered a meat and potatoes lesson on my-way-or-the-highway developmental economics.

Here's Palmer on TransCanada's negotiation tactic with first nations on the pipeline's right-of-way:

"We are a commercial party, looking to do a commercial transaction with first nations, individual first nations or groups, as they see fit, in order to advance the project to a successful conclusion. That's our mandate. That's what we will be focused on.

"We'll be focused on bringing them specific benefits that can advance their entities and advance their agendas, but TransCanada will not be involved in individual land claims.

"And I will also tell you that this project cannot wait for land claims. This project, we have a right-of-way, have held a right-of-way since 1983 through the entire Yukon. It's a valid right-of-way and we will use that right-of-way to advance the project."

And the project, if it goes ahead, would be one of the largest of its kind ever attempted in North America.

Pegged at $26 billion US to construct, the 2,744-km pipeline would be capable of shipping five billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Boundary Lake, Alberta and on to customers in Canada and the Lower 48.

To date, the United States government has offered $18 billion US in loan guarantees to back the project (with word that figure could climb to $30 billion US).

On Tuesday, Palmer highlighted Alaska's cash commitment and TransCanada's stake in the action.

"The State of Alaska is prepared to advance $500 million of their money to advance this project and TransCanada is advancing more than $100 million of our money over the next four or five years to advance this project so you can see how committed we are as a company."

Despite 2014 being the earliest construction could begin, Palmer would not speculate on the cost projections five years down the road, nor potential increases to U.S. loan guarantees, except to say new figures from TransCanada would be available soon.

"At the present time, our latest capital cost estimate that we completed in 2007 had a $26 billion US cost to the project from Prudhoe Bay to Alberta.

"We'll have a new cost estimate in about a year's time and we'll put that out to the public when it's finished."

While Palmer was not offering an up-to-date price tag, he was more than forthcoming on benefits for Yukoners. Here's TransCanada's lead Alaska Highway pipeliner on the riches for the territory if the project cuts through the Yukon:

"If this project is successful, you will see massive construction jobs, you'll certainly see access to natural gas as consumers in the Yukon, which is significant because I know how high fuel bills can be here as they are in Alaska.

"But I will also highlight what the direct taxes will be in the Yukon from this pipeline.

"These are solely direct property taxes and income taxes from the pipeline - no spin-off jobs, no spin-offs or multipliers - they are $3,300 per Yukoner, per year, for 25 years. That is a massive amount of taxes that we will be paying if we can make this project a success, all to the benefit of Yukoners."

Based on 34,000 people who currently reside in the Yukon, that's $2.8 billion.

But before pipeline excitement reaches fever pitch, TransCanada must be able to sell potential customers on its ability to get gas to market at a competitive rate.

This period of wheeling and dealing is known as open season, and is expected to get underway this time next year, concluding in July 2010.

Palmer said if customers commit their gas to Asia or the southern states in the Lower 48, the Yukon could be skipped altogether in favour of building a parallel pipeline to Valdez.

There, gas would be converted to liquid (LNG) and shipped out of Alaska.

But with no LNG plant at the oil transfer station at Valdez, and little interest by third parties to build one, piping the gas south remains the most viable option.

In answering concerns about the difficulties in building a buried four-foot diametre pipeline through the Alaskan, Yukon and B.C. terrain, Palmer said it would be easier than when TransCanada had to blast "foot-by-foot" through the Canadian shield in Ontario.

He also offered assurances that TransCanada's construction methods were as sound as its authority to build the pipeline.

"We're not proposing to apply 1978 standards for something we're going to build in 2014/2015.

"However, the go-no-go decision on this project has been made. It will not be revisited. So what we're talking about is meeting the standards of 2014/2015."