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)  $3.464.13   $3.55 
Exercised   (8,000)  $1.70   $1.70 
Balance, December 31, 2023   1,114,000   $1.753.61   $3.13 
Granted   1,081,000   $2.00 4.05   $2.12 
Cancelled or expired   (275,000)  $1.753.61   $2.54 
Exercised   (80,000)  $1.752.44   $2.31 
Balance, December 31, 2024   1,840,000   $2.004.05   $2.68 
Exercisable, December 31, 2024   939,000   $2.003.61   $2.71 

 

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

 

SCHEDULE OF RECOGNIZED STOCK BASED COMPENSATION 

   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 
Stock based compensation  $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   1.764.11% 
Volatility   66.01 71.59% 
Fair value of options granted   $1.462.02 

 

 

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).

 

About Stock Compensation Disclosures

Stock-based compensation disclosures detail the equity awards granted to employees and executives — including stock options, restricted stock units (RSUs), and performance shares — along with the valuation methods and assumptions used to expense them. This section reveals the true cost of talent retention and the alignment between management incentives and shareholder interests.

Key signals: total unrecognized compensation expense and its expected recognition period signal future earnings headwinds from already-granted awards. For stock options, examine Black-Scholes assumptions — expected volatility, risk-free rate, and expected term — as understating any of these reduces reported compensation expense. Compare stock compensation expense as a percentage of revenue against peers to assess dilution cost. Watch vesting schedules for acceleration clauses tied to change-of-control events. Performance-based awards with undemanding targets may indicate weak governance. Add back stock compensation to operating cash flow to calculate a more conservative free cash flow figure.