STOCK OPTIONS

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

Share-Based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]

STOCK OPTIONS

15. STOCK OPTIONS

The Company has a stock option plan (“Plan”). The purpose of this Plan is to provide additional incentives to key employees, officers, directors and consultants of the Company and its subsidiaries in order to help attract and retain the best available personnel for positions of responsibility and otherwise promote the success of the Company’s business. It is intended that options issued under this Plan constitute non-qualified stock options. The general terms of awards under the option plan are that 100% of the options granted will vest the year following the grant unless a executive employee is granted a multi-year stock option grant where an equal amount vests over the next 5 years. The maximum term of options granted is 5 years and the exercise price for all options are issued for not less than fair market value at the date of the grant.

The following table summarizes the Company’s stock option activities for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022:

	Number of shares			Exercise price per share		Weighted average exercise price
Balance, December 31, 2021		789,500		$	1.42 – 4.13	$	2.78
Granted		981,000		$	3.55 – 3.61	$	3.55
Cancelled or expired		(13,486	)	$	1.70 – 3.61	$	2.32
Exercised		(71,014	)	$	1.42 – 2.44	$	1.98
Balance, December 31, 2022		1,686,000		$	1.70 – 4.13	$	3.26
Cancelled or expired		(564,000	)	$	3.46 – 4.13	$	3.55
Exercised		(8,000	)	$	1.70	$	1.70
Balance, December 31, 2023		1,114,000		$	1.75 – 3.61	$	3.13
Exercisable, December 31, 2023		754,000		$	1.75 – 3.61	$	2.93

The weighted-average remaining contractual life of outstanding options is 2.90 years.

The fair value of each option grant is calculated using the following weighted average assumptions:

	2022
Expected life – years		3.0
Interest rate		1.76 – 3.64	%
Volatility		66.01 - 69.66	%
Weighted average fair value of options granted	$	1.46 – 1.65

During the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company granted nil (2022 – 46,000) stock options to consultants and has applied ASC 718 using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model, which resulted in expenses of $nil (2022 - $14,850). Options granted in other years resulted in additional expenses of $62,241 (2022 – $62,187). During the year ended December 31, 2023, employees were granted nil (2022 – 935,000) stock options, which resulted in expenses of $nil (2022 – $172,731). Options granted in other years resulted in additional expenses in the amount of $328,769 for employees during the year ended December 31, 2023 (2022 - $149,380). There were 8,000 employee and nil consultant stock options exercised during the year ended December 31, 2023 (2022 – 54,500 employee; 16,514 consultant).

As of December 31, 2023, there was approximately $375,351 of compensation expense related to non-vested awards. This expense is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 2.5 years.

The aggregate intrinsic value of vested options outstanding at December 31, 2023 is $nil (2022 – $69,190). The intrinsic value of options exercised during the year ended December 31, 2023 was $11,520 (2022 - $96,989).