STOCK OPTIONS

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Share-Based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]

STOCK OPTIONS

14. 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, 2024 and 2023:

	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		1,081,000		$	2.00 – 4.05	$	2.12
Cancelled or expired		(275,000	)	$	1.75 – 3.61	$	2.54
Exercised		(80,000	)	$	1.75 – 2.44	$	2.31
Balance, December 31, 2024		1,840,000		$	2.00 – 4.05	$	2.68
Exercisable, December 31, 2024		939,000		$	2.00 – 3.61	$	2.71

During the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, the Company recognized stock based compensation associated with stock options as follows:

	2024		2023
Line item on the statement of income and comprehensive income:
Wages and administrative salaries	$	623,000	$	331,609
Consulting		50,130		63,471
	$	673,130	$	395,080

During the year ended December 31, 2024, the Company granted 102,000 (2023 – nil) stock options to consultants and 979,000 (2023 – nil) stock options to employees. The fair value of options granted during 2024 was calculated using the following range of assumptions:

	2024
Expected life – years		3.0
Interest rate		1.76 – 4.11%
Volatility		66.01 – 71.59%
Fair value of options granted		$1.46 – 2.02

As of December 31, 2024, the weighted-average remaining contractual life of outstanding and exercisable options is 3.4 years and 3.1 years, respectively. As of December 31, 2024, there was approximately $603,850 of compensation expense related to non-vested awards that is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 1.9 years.

The aggregate intrinsic value of options outstanding and exercisable at December 31, 2024 is $1,709,850 (2023 - $nil) and $843,790 (2023 - $nil), respectively. During the year ended December 31, 2024, the intrinsic value of stock options exercised was $88,730 (2023 - $11,520).