On Jack Keir’s initial trips to New England as New Brunswick’s energy minister, he found audiences friendly if a bit uninformed. To begin with, he had to explain to some that he was from the Maritimes, and not a city in New Jersey. Then he had to explain what his province had to offer, and why it would be advantageous for companies to do business there.

“Now, nobody asks where New Brunswick is,’’ says Keir, a Liberal MLA from Saint John who was elected in October 2006. “They know what our competitive advantages are, and they are interested in getting into our market.

“On top of that, competitors from the New England states are asking government officials why they are talking to us,” Keir adds. “They feel we are a threat to their business, and I see that as a huge step forward.”

Long considered a have-not province, New Brunswick is enjoying an economic renaissance, mainly due to energy-related projects and progressive tax reforms.

Saint John is already home to Canada’s largest oil refinery. Now family-owned oil giant Irving Oil Ltd. is considering adding a second refinery in the city in a move that would more than double the firm’s refining capacity.

Renovations are being done to a nuclear plant, a liquefied natural gas facility is under construction and, most recently, New Brunswick and Maine revealed they were jointly exploring the creation of a pipeline corridor through which oil and other energy products could be shipped down the eastern seaboard.

The recent announcement prompted a hissing match between Keir and Peter MacKay, a Nova Scotian and the federal Tories’ point man for the Atlantic provinces. Years after New Brunswick began developing new energy initiatives, MacKay swooped in with money for energy in the region, leaving New Brunswick out of the equation. He even suggested the feds might do their own energy projects with other Atlantic provinces, bypassing New Brunswick and connecting directly to Maine.

State governor John Baldacci, however, put the kibosh on MacKay’s notion, saying Maine had been dealing with New Brunswick for some time prior to Ottawa’s involvement and will continue to do so.

The point here is that, suddenly, New Brunswick is no longer economically inconsequential — either within Canada or in its dealings with neighbouring U.S. states.

As much as $40 billion is expected to flow into the province from private investors as a result of new energy initiatives. “I am talking to investors from all over the world who have heard about what is going on here,” Keir says, “and are interested in being part of it.”

With New Brunswick’s natural connection to the northeastern U.S., the province sees itself as the new Alberta — especially with the bloom currently off the West. Workers lured to Saint John from elsewhere, and some returning from the Wild Rose province, are filling apartments and causing long lines for restaurants and movie theatres.

New Brunswick has projected a deficit of $740 million this year, but, even still, it is better positioned than many other parts of Canada — such as Ontario, which has fallen from its traditional economic leadership role into have-not status. Whereas New Brunswick has long been an also-ran when it comes to prosperity, it now believes it will be nearer to the front of the line in the future.

It has the energy the world is hungry for, as well as business-friendly tax rates, introduced in April.

“New Brunswick is a small province, but I think we manage, every now and then, to attract attention by thinking outside the box,’’ says Victor Boudreau, New Brunswick’s finance minister, who was invited in April to speak to the C.D. Howe Institute. “People are talking about what we are doing in this great place.” IE