Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Acadian Timber Corp. 2022 Annual General Meeting. Please note the meeting is being recorded. I would like to introduce Malcolm Cockwell, Chairman of Acadian. Mr. Cockwell, please go ahead.
Thank you, operator, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is my pleasure to welcome everyone to the Acadian Timber Corp Annual General Meeting. It is now 11:00 A.M. Eastern Time and time to start the 2022 annual meeting. My name is Malcolm Cockwell, and as Chairman of the corporation, I will chair this meeting. With me today are the directors of Acadian, Heather Fitzpatrick, Karen Oldfield, Erika Reilly, and Bruce Robertson. Also on the phone are Adam Sheparski, President and Chief Executive Officer and Director of Acadian, and Susan Wood, Chief Financial Officer of Acadian. We are committed to open communication and are pleased to host a meeting through TSX Trust Company's virtual meeting platform, accessible to all our shareholders, regardless of physical location, to participate and view the meeting.
I officially call the meeting to order and appoint Susan Wood to act as secretary of the meeting, and Helen Kim and Megan Rocha of TSX Trust Company to act as scrutineer of the meeting. Only registered shareholders who held shares in their name as of March 25th, 2022, the record date of this meeting, or their validly appointed proxy holders, are entitled to vote and ask questions at this meeting. Before we turn to the business before us, I would like to deal with a few procedural matters. The business of the meeting is described in the management information circular dated March 25th, 2022, which accompanied the notice of meeting. I will take the notice of meeting as read. We will conduct the votes on the matters before us by a poll.
On a poll, each registered shareholder or their duly appointed proxy holder who is entitled to vote on the matter and has joined the meeting using their control number, has one vote in respect of each share entitled to be voted on the matter and held by that shareholder. The poll will be open for all resolutions at the same time. Click the voting button on the left menu of your screen when the poll is announced. This will allow you to choose to vote on each resolution immediately or wait until conclusion of discussion on each resolution prior to casting your vote. There will be an opportunity to ask questions on each resolution in turn. To submit a question, click the Ask a Question button on the left menu of your screen and type your question in the text box.
Once discussion on each item of business has concluded, I will give you a moment to enter your votes if you have not done so already. Once discussion on all items of business has concluded, I will provide a final opportunity to vote and then declare voting closed on all resolutions. I now declare the polls open on all resolutions. Registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders who have joined the meeting using their control number, you may now click on the voting button in order to cast your vote or votes once discussion on each item has concluded. If you have already submitted your votes in advance and do not wish to change your vote, you do not need to take further action. To expedite matters today, Mr. Sheparski and I will move and second all motions with respect to the business of the meeting.
This is designed to facilitate the progression of the meeting and not intended to discourage comments. A copy of the materials, together with an affidavit of TSX Trust Company, confirming such materials were properly mailed to shareholders, will be kept by the secretary with the records of the meeting. The minutes of last year's annual meeting held on May 6, 2021, are available should any shareholder wish to review them. The transfer agent has provided a preliminary report on attendance. Based on this report, the secretary has confirmed that there is a quorum present. I therefore declare the meeting properly constituted for the transaction of business for which it has been called. I will now table the corporation's 2021 annual report to shareholders, which includes the 2021 financial statements together with the auditor's report.
Copies of our annual report were mailed to registered shareholders and are accessible on the corporation's website and profile on SEDAR. We will now proceed to the appointment of auditors. As stated in the notice of meeting, it is the intention of the persons named in the form of proxy to vote in favor of a resolution appointing PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as auditors of the corporation to hold office until the next annual meeting and authorizing the board to fix their remuneration subject to contrary instructions within the form of proxy.
Mr. Chairman, I move that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP be appointed auditors of the corporation until the next annual meeting, and that the directors be authorized to fix their remuneration.
Thank you, Mr. Sheparski. I, Malcolm Cockwell, second the motion. To submit a question, click the Ask a Question button on the left menu of your screen and type your question in the text box. Seeing no questions, if you have not already, please cast your votes using the voting button before we move on to the next item. We will now proceed with the election of six directors, each of whom is to be elected at this meeting to hold office until the next annual meeting. Particulars of the six director nominees are set out in the management information circular, which accompanied the notice of meeting sent to shareholders.
As stated in the notice of meeting, it is the intention of the persons named in the form of proxy to vote in favor of the election of each of the six director nominees, subject to contrary instructions given in the form of proxy. I will now call for nominations for the election of six directors of the corporation.
Mr. Chairman, I nominate the following persons: Malcolm Cockwell, Heather Fitzpatrick, Karen Oldfield, Erika Reilly, Bruce Robertson, and Adam Sheparski, and move that they be elected directors of the corporation to hold office until the next annual meeting.
Thank you, Mr. Sheparski. Are there any further nominations? There being no further nominations, I declare the nominations closed.
Mr. Chairman, I will move that those nominees whose names have been read be elected to serve as directors of the corporation until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are elected or appointed.
Thank you, Mr. Sheparski. I, Malcolm Cockwell, second the motion. To submit a question, click the Ask a Question button on the left menu of your screen and type your question in the text box. Seeing no questions, if you have not already, please cast your votes using the voting button. This being our final resolution, for those of you who have not voted on either of the resolutions, please do so now as I will shortly close the poll. The polls are now closed, and I will read the results. Management has received proxies representing over 99% of the votes cast in favor of this resolution, appointing PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as auditors of the corporation to hold office until the next annual meeting and authorizing the board to fix their remuneration.
Since the votes withheld for this resolution are minimal, I will take the voting results from the proxy tabulation report and declare the motion carried. Management has received proxies representing over 98% of the votes cast in favor of each of the directors nominated. Since the votes withheld for each nominee are minimal, I will take the voting results from the proxy tabulation report and declare the motion carried. As there are six persons nominated for the same number of positions, I now declare that those nominated have been duly elected directors of the corporation. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes the formal part of today's meeting. Now, I will turn the meeting over to Mr. Sheparski, President and Chief Executive Officer of Acadian.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning, everyone. Before I start my comments, I would like to remind listeners that during the course of our presentation and in responding to the questions about our financial and operating performance, we may make forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, and future results may differ materially. For further information on our risk factors, I encourage you to review Acadian's annual report and annual information form, which are posted on our website at acadiantimber.com. Today, I'd like to start by providing you with a brief overview of our business and then discuss the company's achievements and performance during 2021. I would also like to provide an update on our performance so far in 2022 and comment on the outlook for the remainder of the year.
After which, I would be happy to take any questions. Let's begin with an overview of our business. Acadian is a leading sustainable forest management company in Eastern North America. We own and manage approximately 1.1 million acres of private timberlands located in New Brunswick and Maine, and manage an additional 1.3 million acres of Crown land in New Brunswick. Our business includes all aspects of forest management, from planting, growing, and managing trees to harvesting, marketing, and selling logs and biomass byproducts, with all of our operations being SFI certified.
Acadian's timberlands have been under active management for over 100 years, and we have a very complete and comprehensive infrastructure in place and longstanding relationships with a large and diversified base of customers, which has recently been enhanced with the addition of regional markets that were previously not served by Acadian. Our strategy is to maximize cash flows from our timberland assets through sustainable forest management and other land use activities, and then flow through the majority of our cash flows to you, our shareholders. Turning to a review of Acadian's performance through 2021. Acadian's commitment to health and safety is our top priority, as we believe that emphasizing and achieving a good safety record is a leading indicator of success in the broader business.
With that, we are extremely proud that there were no recordable safety incidents among employees or contractors during the year. Although we are pleased with our safety record in 2021, the Acadian team remains focused on continuous improvement throughout our operations. 2021 was another transformative year for Acadian. While the company and its customers continued to operate through the pandemic, the new management team was finalized and full integration to a standalone company was completed. The new team is working extremely well together and continuing to be inventive and finding additional ways to unlock value for you, our shareholders. Market demand for our products remained strong, with a number of new customers beginning to take delivery, which resulted in increases in pricing.
Although Acadian experienced some headwinds in the form of unseasonal weather, challenging pulpwood markets, and significant increases in fuel costs, the financial results for the year demonstrate the stability of the timberland business. During 2021, Acadian executed its first carbon development and marketing agreement to develop voluntary carbon credits on the portion of our Maine timberlands that is subject to a working forest conservation easement. This project commits Acadian to balancing harvest and growth, and requires long-term planning, annual reporting, periodic carbon inventory verification, and maintenance of the existing sustainable forestry certification. The timelines for this project has not changed, and Acadian expects to begin receiving proceeds from sales of carbon credits in mid- to- late 2022.
While this project is small in relation to the entire Acadian land base and originally expected to contribute modestly to cash flows, the current markets for voluntary carbon credits have strengthened and may contribute more than originally expected. Acadian has learned a lot from this project, and it is being used to form a foundation for potential future carbon credit development. We will continue to analyze carbon markets in both Canada and the U.S. as they develop and ensure we capitalize on opportunities, and at the same time, not negatively impacting the operations of our timberland business. Finally, before I turn to our financial results, back in February, we announced that Acadian would be implementing both a dividend reinvestment plan and a normal- course issuer bid.
We believe the DRIP allows Acadian to assist in the facilitation of shareholder support in the company and allows us to remain poised to pursue potential strategic opportunities. Instituting the NCIB enables us to acquire common shares when the market price represents a desirable use of capital to increase shareholder value. However, given the liquidity of Acadian stock, we expect that we will be somewhat limited in our ability to repurchase shares through the life of the program. With respect to our annual results, Acadian generated sales of CAD 95.7 million in 2021 compared to CAD 91 million in 2020. Weighted average selling price, excluding biomass, increased 4% with a higher- value product mix and strong sawlog prices. Acadian's adjusted EBITDA was CAD 22.5 million during 2021 compared to CAD 21.5 million in 2020.
Our adjusted EBITDA margin was 23% compared to 24% in 2020. Acadian generated free cash flow per share of CAD 1.01 in 2021 compared to CAD 0.91 in 2020. Total dividends declared to shareholders during the year ended December 31, 2021, were CAD 19.4 million, or CAD 1.16 per share, consistent with 2020. The payout ratio of Acadian, which represents the amount of dividends declared as a percentage of the free cash flow generated, was 114% for 2021. Acadian ended the year with a solid net liquidity position of CAD 19.8 million, which includes cash and funds available under the revolving credit facilities. Turning to our performance during the first quarter of 2022.
As reported yesterday, Acadian generated sales of CAD 26.6 million compared to CAD 25.9 million in the comparable period of 2021. Sales volume, excluding biomass, increased 6%, primarily as a result of higher softwood sales, partially offset by lower hardwood pulpwood sales caused by reduced trucking capacity. Weighted average selling price, excluding biomass, increased 6% year-over-year, benefiting from strong sawlog prices and improved pulpwood prices driven by strong demand. Operating costs of CAD 19.8 million in the quarter were CAD 0.6 million higher than the CAD 19.2 million in the prior year, reflecting higher harvesting activity, fuel prices, and land management costs, partially offset by decreased timber services in New Brunswick. Variable costs per cubic meter increased 3% as a result of higher fuel costs during the first quarter of 2022.
Adjusted EBITDA totaled CAD 6.9 million during the quarter, consistent with the prior- year period. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was in line with the prior- year period of 26% compared to 27% last year. Our net income for the first quarter was CAD 4.2 million compared to CAD 5.8 million in the prior- year period. The variance is primarily the result of the application of hedge accounting during the first quarter of 2022, which resulted in changes in the unrealized foreign- exchange gain of $1.4 million on Acadian's U.S. dollar-denominated debt being recorded in other comprehensive income rather than through profit and loss.
We generated CAD 5 million of free cash flow consistent with the prior- year period and declared dividends of CAD 4.8 million to our shareholders during the first quarter, or CAD 0.29 per share, resulting in a payout ratio of 97%. The outlook for softwood and hardwood sawlogs in 2022 remains positive, supported by favorable outlook for both softwood and hardwood lumber. We expect strong and steady demand for our sawlog products and some potential for price improvements. Turning to our pulpwood products. Hardwood pulpwood is expected to remain stable, with facilities running steady, including Louisiana-Pacific's Houlton Mill, which has recently come online. Softwood pulpwood demand has begun to materialize, and we remain cautiously optimistic. Continued high inventories regionally and significant competition from sawmill residuals limit significant growth prospects for near-term improvement.
Looking ahead, with Acadian's strong balance sheet, diverse markets, and a highly capable team, we will continue to focus on maximizing value for you, our shareholders. As we continue to work through an unprecedented environment, we are grounded by our vision, which is our commitment to long-term sustainable land management for the benefit of our stakeholders. We are committed to operating safely and managing our forest in a manner that is consistent with the principles of sustainable forestry. We are focused on retaining strong relationships with our diversified base of customers and contractors to ensure the long-term success of our business. We recognize the importance of making positive contributions to the communities in which we live and work, and we continue to innovate in order to improve cash flow and provide attractive and sustainable distributions to our shareholders.
Before I conclude, on behalf of the management team, I would like to thank our employees and contractors for their hard work, contributions, and commitment to Acadian. This concludes my presentation, and I will now welcome any questions. Mr. Chairman, with no questions received, I will now turn the meeting back to you.
Thank you, Mr. Sheparski. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you for your participation and attendance today. This brings us to the end of today's meeting, and as there is no other business, I declare the meeting terminated. Thank you for your support for Acadian. Stay safe and take care.
Ladies and gentlemen, as the meeting is now concluded, you may now disconnect.