STOCK OPTIONS

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2024

Share-Based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]

STOCK OPTIONS

12. 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 year ended December 31, 2023 and the three-month period ended March 31, 2024:

	Number of shares			Exercise price per share		Weighted average exercise price
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
Granted		950,000		$	2.00	$	2.00
Cancelled or expired		(103,000	)	$	1.75 – 3.61	$	2.06
Exercised		(15,000	)	$	1.75	$	1.75
Balance, March 31, 2024		1,946,000		$	2.00 – 3.61	$	2.65
Exercisable, March 31, 2024		814,000		$	2.00 – 3.61	$	2.86

The weighted-average remaining contractual life of outstanding options is 3.75 years.

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

	2024
Expected life – years		3.0
Interest rate		3.893 – 4.22	%
Volatility		59.72 – 60.35	%
Weighted average fair value of options granted	$	0.71 – 0.79

During the three months ended March 31, 2024, the Company granted 56,000 (2023 – nil) stock options to consultants and has applied ASC 718 using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model, which resulted in expenses of $9,940 (2023 - $nil). Options granted in other years resulted in additional expenses of $nil (2023 – $62,241). During the three months ended March 31, 2024, employees were granted 894,000 (2023 – nil) stock options, which resulted in expenses of $199,687 (2023 – $nil). Options granted in other years resulted in additional expenses in the amount of $43,730 for employees during the three months ended March 31, 2024 (2023 - $328,769). There were 15,000 employee and nil consultant stock options exercised during the three months ended March 31, 2024 (2023 – 8,000 employee; nil consultant).

As of March 31, 2024, there was approximately $822,813 of compensation expense related to non-vested awards. This expense is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 2.3 years.

The aggregate intrinsic value of vested options outstanding at March 31, 2024 is $nil (2023 – $161,430). The intrinsic value of options exercised during the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $720 (2023 - $11,520).