Wood marketing board directors fired after forest commission investigation

The directors of the York Sunbury Charlotte Forest Products Marketing Board have been "removed from office … for cause," following an investigation by the New Brunswick Forest Products Commission.

All 21 directors had previously been suspended after a review of the board's audited financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2014, showed "a financial situation which concerned the commission."

It was related to a failed business venture that was supposed to revive a dormant Fredericton-area sawmill.

The directors were permanently removed on June 10, the commission announced on Thursday, after reporting its findings to Minister of Natural Resources Denis Landry.

The commission will now be seeking expressions of interest from qualified woodlot owners and producers from within the YSC board-regulated area to appoint a new board of directors over the next two months, the commission said.

The number of board members required has been reduced to 11, it said.

The YSC represents about 7,100 private woodlot owners. Its mandate is to sell wood from private woodlots to forestry companies.

The commission had previously said the board's involvement in Maritime Fibre and Energy Ltd., was an "unsound business practice" that could "prejudice the interests of the private woodlot owner producers" it is supposed to represent.

The involvement in the mill, formerly M.L. Wilkins & Sons, which closed in 2007, was also "outside the scope, purposes or powers" of the board, the commission had said.

The commission oversees the seven marketing boards around the province.