A Canadian company that's in the running to build a natural gas pipeline along the Alaska Highway says it won't get involved with land claims with First Nations along the proposed route, but will offer commercial benefits instead.

Making the remarks Thursday in Whitehorse, TransCanada Corp. vice-president Tony Palmer said the company would offer benefits, whether affected First Nations have settled their land claims or not.

"We believe that this project can be constructed, and it will be to the benefit of individual First Nations, whether they have a land claim resolution or not," Palmer said during the Opportunities North conference, which wrapped up Thursday in the Yukon capital.

"But our discussions with First Nations will be about benefits, and they will be about commercial matters, not about land claims," he said. "We're just not going to be a party to that."

Palmer said TransCanada's proposed 2,760-kilometre pipeline, which would run from Alaska's North Slope to Alberta and to markets throughout North America, cannot be built through Canada without the cooperation of First Nations and communities along the route.

The company hopes to conclude commercial benefit agreements with First Nations before the end of 2009, Palmer added.

In August, Calgary-based TransCanada won Alaskan state approval for the $26-billion Alaska Pipeline Project. It must now obtain U.S. federal permits for the pipeline before construction can begin.

Construction to start in 2016

The company's tentative schedule calls for a two-year construction period starting in 2016, with the pipeline to be in service by September 2018.

Two other companies, BP PLC and ConocoPhillips, have jointly proposed a competing pipeline, called Denali, which has not been endorsed by the Alaska government. Denali representatives were also at the Whitehorse conference Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, Canada's pipeline industry says governments have to act faster to review pipeline applications like the Alaska Highway project, avoiding major delays like the one being faced by the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline in the Northwest Territories.

TransCanada is also involved in the Mackenzie pipeline, a regulatory review of which was supposed to take only two years.

"Clearly, it's been now over four years and there is still no date certain in terms of a decision," said Brenda Kenny, president of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association.

Kenny said governments will have to do a better job on the proposed Alaska pipeline, or that project could face an uncertain future.

Brian Love, oil and gas director with the Yukon government, sympathized with concerned industry players, saying government delays could prove fatal to those projects.

"Delays certainly can cost companies a great deal of money, so at some point there has to be some sort of efficiencies in the regulatory process, or these projects simply will not proceed," Love said.