Welcome all to the 2023 annual financial results update and investor update from Northstar Clean Technologies. My name is Aidan Mills, I'm the CEO of Northstar. Today, we will cover the usual format, so we're going to walk through the financials. I'm gonna give a bit of an investor update, and as I've said to a number of the investors who've chatted to me, this is one of the most important updates that we've given as a kind of quarterly presentation, because it demonstrates all the progress that this business is making. Then lastly, we'll do the Q&A.
And same format as before, if you have a question to ask, just put it in the question box at the bottom of your screen, and then the questions will all be collated, and we'll ask them at the end. So thank you very much, as always, to the Kin team for helping us set this up and hosting it for us. I'm also joined by Chris Park, our interim CFO, and Carson Sedun is our Director of Corporate Development, will do the usual question collection and then ask me the investor questions at the end of the call. So I will now. Oh, sorry. Usual disclaimer, so you get to read in your leisure, and I will now hand over to Chris Park, our CFO.
Thank you, Aidan. So when I look at Northstar, the most important key financial metrics that we have at this point in time are what our current cash balances are and our access to capital, and what our CapEx spend profile is on a quarter-by-quarter basis. To a lesser extent, what our revenue is from tipping fees, and what our corporate G&A is on a quarter-by-quarter basis. At the end of the year, Northstar had $7.6 million in the bank, which consists of the residual financing that the company entered into with TAMKO in July of 2023, and a convertible debenture financing that the company partially closed at the end of December.
At the end of the year, the company also had access to CAD 7.1 million in government grants from Emissions Reduction Alberta, and access to a senior secured loan facility with the Business Development Bank of Canada for CAD 8.75 million. Our CapEx spend year to date is CAD 2.6 million, of which CAD 2.1 million is directly related to the construction of our facility in Calgary. And what you see is that the CapEx spend profile over the last four quarters has increased dramatically in Q4 of 2023, when the company entered detailed engineering and design phase of its development of the Calgary facility here in Calgary.
What you can expect to see from Northstar in the next quarter or two is we have already drawn on our government grants with Emissions Reduction Alberta for $ 1.3 million in April of 2024. And what we expect to draw down our BDC senior loan facility starting in Q2 of 2024. What you can also see is that the company was collecting tipping fees at its Delta site and has steadily increased quarter by quarter. Tipping fees and the amount of revenue collected from it is not, at this point in time, a very important part of our revenue and financing stream, but towards the latter stages of 2024, it will be.
The last metric I just wanted to quickly touch upon are our corporate G&A and research and development expenses. What you can see is that our research and development expenses have decreased from Q4 2022 towards Q3 2023, and then none in Q4 2023, as the company entered into its development phase. One last point I'd like to make is that our corporate G&A has remained reasonably consistent quarter by quarter and also includes for the year-end for the year for the calendar year end of 2023 CAD 1.6 million in non-cash expenditures.
So our actual cash expenditures for the for the financial year 2023 is approximately CAD 5 million, and then we have an additional charge of CAD 1.6 million that relates to depreciation and stock-based compensation. At this point, I'm gonna turn it over to Aidan for the rest of the presentation.
Excellent. Thanks, Chris, for walking that through. I mean, these financials are pretty indicative of what I'm just about to talk about, which is, of course, you know, the cash that's funding the Calgary project and Northstar, but also the commencement of the capital spend. And we'll also talk a little bit about Calgary's tipping fees and what's going to happen there. So, let me just go to the next slide. Okay. So, one of the things that I'm gonna touch on is. I'll talk through where we've got to in Q3 and Q4 and 2024, and I'll go through all of these points in detail. I'm not necessarily going to kind of go through each one here and then just repeat it.
But what I am going to do, and this is why I think this is one of a critical call for us, and that is to address the four of the big questions that we were asked, kind of coming out of the last presentation, but also as we come into 2024. And, and these are the four big questions from shareholders, which is, number one- You're building your Calgary facility, so but what's happening with feedstock? Because up to the end of 2023, nothing had been discussed apart from, you know, kind of like the, the, the strategic discussions we were in. Where are you in feedstock agreements, and how are you gonna feed how are you gonna provide feedstock for this plant, number one? Number two, what's actually happening with the project? So, you know, you have these milestones with Emissions Reduction Alberta.
You have, you know, you talked about equipment being ordered, so what's actually happening with that? So I'll talk about that. Number three, what's happening with funding? So where are you in Emissions Reduction Alberta? Where are you in BDC? What's happening with the TAMKO cash, et cetera? Number three, and number four, what's happening with the expansion options? So as we came into 2024, those were the questions that were being asked. So let me take you through those one by one in this presentation. So firstly, feedstock supply. So the first agreement that we pressed, at least in the beginning of the year, was a feedstock supply with IKO. So IKO has a, you know, significant North American shingle manufacturer, has got a major shingle production facility in Calgary, literally five kilometers away from our city.
So we've entered a five-year agreement with IKO, that they will supply all of their shingle waste from their manufacturing facility, and that we will get that all delivered by IKO to our site. So it's it comes to us delivered from IKO. And just to be clear, what happens with the shingle manufacturing facility? So waste always comes out of shingle manufacturing facilities in general, because as they change lines, they change types of shingles that they're manufacturing. As one line switches over another line, it's like a steady production line, and that creates waste, and also sometimes from a specification perspective, that can also provide rejects.
So of course, we didn't disclose the volume, and we didn't disclose the price in that agreement, and that's something we don't, of course, disclose in any of our agreements. But I will say that it is the first strategic supply agreement from a major shingle manufacturer. I mean, of course, as we talk to TAMKO about what's happening in the U.S., part of the agreement with them is not only supply of asphalt, but also their supply of shingle to us from their facilities. But this is the first signed contract with a major shingle manufacturer for us to reprocess the waste. And as we've always said, there are two types of supply for our Northstar facility. Number one, manufactured waste, and number two, the waste that comes from roofs and are the tear-offs.
And that's the sECCOnd deal that we've just done with ECCO Recycling. So Calgary-based industrial company, and they get around about 20,000 tons per year of operating volume that comes from roofers in the Calgary region. And so they act like a, almost like a municipal facility, whereby they're getting shingles brought into their landfill facility in southern Calgary, and again, like five kilometers away from our site. So the deal with ECCO Recycling is really important because it has three legs. So the first leg is. And ECCO have got great flexibility on their ability to divert, process and divert tons of waste. And so in the first year of 2024, they're going to help us to secure our full commissioning volume.
That's around about 1,000 tons a month. So that will have feedstock when it's added to IKO, plus ECCO, that will have feedstock ready. And if we add, if we add additional suppliers, ECCO can also back that number down a little bit just to make sure we're hitting our commissioning volume target. But then, when the plant is fully operational, they will be able to divert 20,000 tons per year to, to our facility. And then the last thing, it offers huge potential upside. And again, and that is the supply study that we're looking at for ECCO's landfill.
So ECCO Recycling have a landfill in southern Calgary, and it's been developed over approximately 20 years or longer, and they've been working with the city of Calgary and with, the government in Alberta to actually reclaim the land that's in the landfill and take the, the segregated streams that are in there and use them for, enhanced fuel, and, and alternative, alternative recycling. So ECCO have approximate or more than 500,000 tons of shingles in, in that landfill, and that offers, of course, a phenomenal supply volume to the Calgary facility.
Now, that is a study, so lots and lots of work has to be done before that supply can be secured, both with the provincial government, with the city. We'll have to test it, of course, to make sure that as it comes on, it can meet with our production, and it can meet with our specifications, et cetera. So that this is by no means a guarantee, but it, there is the potential that exists that could enable us to significantly debottleneck the Calgary facility, should all the testing prove to work.
And so those two, as we think about feedstock supply, those are very material agreements for us to supply the Calgary facility. And that doesn't even include our discussion with the municipalities, other industrials, roofers in the Calgary region. This is literally just the first two facilities that we've completed. Our first two contracts that we've completed. Okay, so then let's talk about the project.
Look, lots of CEOs can stand up and arm wave about completing their milestones on a project, and I could easily jump on a call and tell you guys, "We've completed detailed engineering." And you'd be like: "Okay, congrats, great, they've completed detailed engineering." But this is very different in the fact that. As you know, Emissions Reduction Alberta, we went through a significant process with Emissions Reduction Alberta when we were awarded first, firstly, to apply for the grant for the circular economy, and secondly, to be awarded it and the award agreement that we negotiated with them. Each one of the milestones has significant milestones to hit, you know, sorry, criteria to hit, to meet that milestone. And as a bit of a reminder, four milestones of Emissions Reduction Alberta.
So number one, detailed design. Number two, fabrication, and construction. Number three, commissioning, and number four, operations. So that makes up not only the milestones, but also the payment schedule for Emissions Reduction Alberta. So to successfully go through detailed design, this is the list of the stuff that we had to do. So we had to show all our process flow diagrams, our more than 30 P&IDs, the heat and material balance. We had to provide the assurance that showed that 75% of all our drawings, data sheets, and specifications were either at IFC or IFP stage, that we had carried out the MMV, which is the definition of how we were going to measure the emissions from the facility. Whenever we made the presentation and did the application for ERA, we had to describe what.
How we were going to commercialize this technology. Now, for us, that's relatively simple to do because we can say the plant gets built in Calgary, and then here's the rollout program across North America to address this problem. So the market's good. We have great, you know, a great advantage in the technology, and here's the plan. But they asked, as part of this stage, they wanted us to repeat that in a specific commercialization plan, and we provided them with a 50-page document on what that plan actually looked like. So that was part of the stage to get through detailed engineering design. And then as important was, what are all the procurement packages and how many of those have you awarded?
And we had to have the long lead project long lead items, equipment items that we had identified. We had already had to place the deposit on those. And that's some of the CapEx numbers that Chris reflected earlier, were the 4Q deposits on that equipment. So all of that to say, when we come back to you as investors to say we've completed this, the amount of due diligence that is behind this is absolutely huge under this ERA program. So all of those steps that we will have are absolutely thorough in terms of due diligence. So then the next question I talked about was, okay, so where are we on the project and where are we on kind of fabrication, et cetera?
So the first thing that's really important about this is we've now moved out of detailed design into procurement and fabrication. But remember, this is not like a refinery where you will see units go up piece by piece- by- piece- by- piece and stick build. This is a facility whereby all of our equipment will come in in skids. So today, we PR'd an incredibly important piece of news, which is the first skid, the first long lead item piece of equipment, has arrived on site. Arrived late last week. But it will be the same as everything else that we order. It will come in on a skid.
So, I a ctually, it is quite funny, some of the investors taking some shots of this, I saw as it arrived, so that was good to see. But it'll be the same. So you will not see a site that kind of starts to build up step by step by step. You will literally see the delivery program for this is fabrication and construction, that is occurring in all our vendor facilities to then come in. And the way I describe the Calgary delivery is assembly, not construction. But super good to see the Rotochopper in this week, and that was obviously an exciting piece of news for everybody. Okay, so then let's talk about funding.
We've been through this before, as I've talked about it, you know, the TAMKO dollars have been received, Emissions Reduction Alberta, the CAD 1.34 million. Oh, sorry, and I should have reflected with respect to detailed design. When we passed all of that due diligence that we did with the Emissions Reduction Alberta, that triggered the $ 1.34 million from ERA and the CAD 100,000 from Alberta Innovates. So that, as Chris says, as the funds came in in Q1 and, you know, got paid by the government, that was because of passing that due diligence for detailed design. So TAMKO is in, BDC is ready to draw, Emissions Reduction Alberta, you know, partially in.
One of the things that's really important about this slide is that the CapEx for Calgary has changed from an initial view of CAD 15 million to CAD 17.5 million. So we went to the board in early January, and had that approved as the budget for the facility. Now, that also includes $ 1.7 million worth of contingency. The reason that we went to that is, as we came, as we've been coming out of detailed design, and obviously that involves not only the equipment, but it also involves, as you're going out with drawing packages, RFPs, et cetera, you start to get a much clearer view of exactly what the CapEx looks like. The certainty around this number is pretty high, and it has a $1 .7 million contingency in it.
The change was scope, where we added items, or when we were talking to vendors and they're like, "Oh, actually, it'd be really good for your production if you added this." Okay? So a scope change, a scale change, where we actually increased the sizing of some units. And then the last thing, of course, everybody in Canada has been suffering from, which is currency exposure to USD. I will be absolutely clear though, and we've done the analysis, that if you assume the engineering costs that are used for this first facility, if you understand that when you go to these vendors to order equipment that is not off the shelf, they also have to do engineering for that, and so the equipment cost is higher.
We have re-estimated it, and we're very clear that the follow-on plants will have a CapEx cost of $5 0 million. So when I've talked about a CAD 15 million capital cost to roll facilities out across North America in the expansion program, we continue to believe that's the number. And the 17.5 million for capital is essentially, you know, engineering costs and higher equipment costs that needs to be engineered from the vendors that we have. We expect that we'd be way more efficient and lower engineering, and CAD 15 million for moving forward. And then the last thing in this slide is the corporate funding. So obviously, by the end of Q1, we had oversubscribed the debenture.
And again, that goes to, you know, working capital for the corporation, and it goes to the Toronto and U.S. One expansion and development costs there. So that's the last question that we will talk about, which is U.S. expansion. So let me be completely clear about what the objective for 2024 is for this company, and that is the delivery of the Calgary facility.
But we can't get to Calgary operation next, you know, early next year and then step back and go, "Okay, what are we doing next?" We want to come out of this with Calgary at, you know, full tilt and operation, and then be in the position whereby we can do the front to back analysis on the engineering and the cost, et cetera, et cetera, so we can be even more efficient when we build the next facilities. And so to do that, you need to have a location, permitting in place, et cetera, et cetera, for the next facilities. And I've been pretty open in all of these calls to say we have U.S. O ne, we were studying U.S. One, and we were also looking at Toronto to understand the timing for that.
And in my opinion, those both go in parallel, and we've just announced the U.S. One first, but we will continue to progress with the Toronto plant, as we've announced. But the selection criteria for this is important, as you can see from the kind of box on the right-hand side, you know, proximity to the TAMKO facility. So this selection criteria and the selection was done in conjunction with TAMKO. So of course, what we want to be doing is locating close to one of our facilities, because they've got the offtake. We've got the supply of the shingles, they've got the offtake of the asphalt and the potential to send us their waste shingles and the potential to offtake aggregate from us, too, depending on testing.
So we obviously wanted a region that had, you know, significant shingle supply availability, good transport considerations, where we were close to major centers, good landfill proximity, as we chatted about for all the partners that we have, IKO, ECCO Recycling, you know, Calgary municipality, all within 5 km of our current facility in Calgary. Permitting capability, in terms of you know, permitting for, waste collection and recycling, and similarly, and similarly, supportive government, support. So as we think about what next, it's the same with the facilities that we think about. Now we need to work with TAMKO to do site selection, to ensure that proximity works and, and we have the proximity to landfills.
We will have to work on permitting in the jurisdiction, and we will start the work on the engagement for government funding. And again, as I've laid out these strategic plans, with the aim of starting construction in 2025. So one of the things I think we covered on the last call was our accomplishments from 2021 to today. And this is where this really comes down, and what, why, you know, talking about the four things or the four questions that we did. So talking about, you know, where we are with feedstock, where we are with the project on milestones and equipment, what's happening with funding and where we are with expansion options.
We're now in a kind of an unparalleled position for Northstar in where we are. So this is not a speculative technology, 2027 future gazing play. This is going to be delivered in 2024. And what we're going to deliver in 2024 is a patented technology, a technology that has two multi-billion-dollar strategic off-takers for our main products, for asphalt that can go into roads and asphalt that can go into shingles. We have a facility that's moved from detailed design and is now in fabrication and procurement, and will construct this year, and will be running in 2024. So it may be commissioning as we come out of 2024, but this facility is this is a 2024 story.
We have ECCOnomics that are based on 10 hours a day and 6 days a week, which are all limited by feedstock. So, so that is the base of the operation of this facility. And now we have the potential in Calgary, and again, it's the potential, a lot of work to be done, to potentially double that throughput if we access the ECCO Recycling facility. We have full funding in place for that, so with ERA, BDC, and TAMKO, and now we have the delivery of our first supply location in the U.S. So as you step down this list and you think about where we are in 2024. This is, you know, and we answer the questions that we had coming into the year.
I think we're in a phenomenal position, and again, the focus this year is on delivering that first commercial facility. And I think we're well positioned from a funding and a technology positioning to do that. So Carson, there's my arm waving finished. Over to you for any questions.
Okay. Thanks, Aidan. I guess first question, can you speak to the company's plans regarding developing the next facilities, and how do you see balancing Northstar's growth opportunities in the U.S. compared to Canada?
Well, I mean, I think it comes back to prioritization. I think, you know, the biggest priority for this company, the most important thing to this market, the most important thing to our customers, the most important thing to our financiers, the most important thing to the people who talk to us about financing the next plants and all of that, is delivering Calgary. So I think we have to be ruthlessly focused on that. However, we can't ignore permitting, just the duration that it takes to secure sites, permits, work with government funding, et cetera.
So I think if we try to go any faster than one more plant in Canada and a plant in the US, we would get over our skis a bit too much, and we would also distract from what we really need to do in 2024, which is deliver Calgary. So I kind of feel that that's enough, delivering Calgary and understanding you know, the permitting and development of the next Canadian facility. And you know, the kind of facility in the U.S. to supply TAMKO and Frederick in Maryland.
And then I think we'll be in a great position at that point in time to then say, based on the back of Calgary's success, to say, how fast does this rollout program look like? As we've always said, these facilities are 40,000-ton facilities that run, you know, 10 hours a day, six days a week, and you can plant them in any city that's over one million people across North America. So and remember, the Asphalt Manufacturing Association came out with the fact that they want to divert 35% or 50% of all shingles away from landfill by 2035, and 100% by 2050.
So if you think about it, if you look at our investor deck, it says, you know, our aspiration is to deliver 30 plants by 2030. If we tried to hit the ARMA target, the industry target, by 2035, we'd have to build over 200. So after we built this first plant in the U.S., you know, and we think about North America, we'd only have 199 to go between then and 2035. And, you know, I like waving my arms and being very aspirational, but even I don't think we're that good.
So I think the market is absolutely huge, but I think we also have to be very judicious about how we deploy our resources. Calgary is the most important thing, and then let's do the follow-ons with where we have permitting in place to deploy this really successful technology very quickly, you know, into both the Maryland area and, you know, the next Canadian plant as well.
Okay, thanks, Aidan. Next question. Now that the Rotochopper has arrived, what other long lead item equipment, long lead equipment items are expected next?
You know, we have, as you know, we have patented technology, but as you also know, I'm very, very reluctant to talk about specific items of equipment, 'cause I always think it gives away how we're building this facility, so I would like to decline to answer that question.
What's the determining factor for whether ECCO Recycling will supply Northstar with shingles from its 500,000-ton shingle landfill? And I guess part two of that question is regarding ECCO, and if we are the only taker of their shingles, and if yes, will they have incentive to increase the yearly volume?
Well, so if you think about ECCO supply to us, the volume that's really easy for them to supply is the volume that comes in, from all the roofers, et cetera, that use ECCO as a landfill. So they process that, clean it up, and send it back to us. So that's essentially like diversion of all the tons that are coming in today, and as I said, that's roughly 20,000 tons a day. So that can come in day one, day in, day out, and they are an industrial collector, a bit like we're an industrial collector. We just have a very effective contract for them to divert to us.
And of course, diversion to us means that they add less to their landfill as well. So the landfill is a completely separate question, and they are doing all the analysis on. And so when they set that landfill up, it was segregated. So they put one, you know, drywall went one way, wood went another way, shingles went another way. So that's how they are very, it's very accurate as to how much they understand that they have in that landfill, which was essentially shingles deposited over the last 20 years. So essentially, what they do is they take that out, they process it, and then it's ready to come to us.
Now, yes, they have other alternatives for that, but we are the most material handler that could really benefit from their supply, and therefore offer them the biggest kind of volume offtaker for that. But it's, it's, it's a plan currently being developed by ECCO. They're working, as I said, with the Calgary government. They're working with the Alberta to develop, to get the permitting to do that. But of course, that needs rigorous testing from us. A rigorous testing on specification as they take it out of the landfill, how does that look? As they grind it up and process it, how does that look? Et cetera, et cetera. And so all of that needs. That's why we put it in the PR, and we've chatted about today as a study.
So there's a number of determining steps, but all of that to say, if you think about Calgary from a processing perspective, sorry. If you think about Northstar Calgary as a processing perspective, the impact could be huge. So, you know, facility gets built in 2024, facility is up to full operation in 2025, and then in theory, if all of this aligns with, the, the ECCO development plan, we could move to 24/7 in 2026. Now, that is, that-- just to be clear, that is not guaranteed at all. But what we do have now is the potential where there is a resource that could enable us to move the facility to, to full operation.
And importantly to that, when we look at the Toronto facility, when we look at the facility in the U.S., et cetera, our facilities are sized at 40,000 tons a year. So that's sized at operating 15 tons an hour, 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. But there is no reason for our facilities not to run 24/7. The only constraint is feedstock. It is not a constraint on anything with-- that is inherently technical within the facility. If you can run a facility for 15 hours a day, you can run it for 8hrs, 10hrs, 16hrs, 20 hours, whatever you want it.
Okay, thanks, Aidan. A follow-up question just on feedstock. What is the approach other than IKO and ECCO for targeting additional Calgary feedstock supply?
One of the things that I think I've chatted about in the past is our engagement with municipalities. So that includes Calgary, it includes surrounding municipalities, to actually divert everything that's going into the landfill to us. So there's two ways to do that. You can work with people like ECCO, you can work with people like, sorry, IKO, as a shingle manufacturer, who's bringing it to landfill. You can work with ECCO, you can work with the roofers that are around Calgary.
And you can work with the municipalities as well to divert tons that have already arrived. And so that's one conversation that's going on. And then the second pool is the roofers in the local area and some of the other industrial collectors in the local area. Still significant upside potential from those conversations, and a number of them ongoing, but not yet contractually signed.
Okay, thank you. Last question is just on the vision. If you could speak a little bit more broadly about your three-five year vision for the company.
I think this year is completely pivotal to our vision, and that's why this call is so important, because I think if you think of how far we've come from 2021, we're within touching distance of the first commercial facility. We have feedstock for that facility, we have funding for that facility, we have offtake for that facility, and all we need to do is build. Now, you know, first of its kind, so always a little bit easier said than done with my arm moving. But that's what we have to do, is we have to build it and operate it and demonstrate that this technology is absolutely viable. I think we'll be astonished as to what happens when this feedstock is demonstrated as viable.
Because a bit like Calgary, you know, this time last year, we had no idea that there was 500,000 tons of shingles 5 kilometers away from our facility. It's only by building this facility, it's only by the development work in Calgary and engaging with the ECCO Waste, you know, president and owner, like, did this conversation ever start? And it only happened because we were like, "Okay, now we're going to Calgary." My vision is that those conversations will happen in every city that we go. The amount of reach out now, because we're going to Frederick to supply TAMKO and Frederick, the amount of reach out from that U.S. region is significant. You know, two, three, five calls a day coming in as to or emails to connect us to the people in that region.
And so I think the only limiting factor, I actually believe if you think about, you know, as I talk about the kind of steps for ESG, the first step is to prove that the technology actually works, and we've done that. You know, we have McAsphalt and TAMKO telling us, for their industries, this works. So we know that it works. The second is to scale it up, and that's what we're doing in Calgary with the first commercial facility. And then the next one is to roll out.
Each one of those steps gets smaller as we go, because I believe a number of people that have talked to us about multi-plant funding, about come to our city if Calgary works, about shingle supply agreements, about offtake agreements, has been huge, but everybody is waiting for Calgary to demonstrate the first commercial facility. And then I think it's just it comes down to. I mean, permitting can't be done overnight, so it comes down to a very good permitting plan and a very good locational development plan. And then it just comes down to resource, and how many people do we deploy to, you know, focus on the Southeast U.S. to focus on the Midwest, to focus, you know, on delivering the three TAMKO plants, to focus on, you know, the Canadian rollout.
Once Calgary is done, it really just becomes a resource of people and speed of rollout. And in the investor relations deck, we have, as I said, the rollout, you know, what we would need to do to get to 30 plants by the end of 2030. I think as I've said, often, once we get to five or six plants, at that point, then you could potentially license the technology. You can't do it after the first one, because there's still process improvement to do and process optimization, and then, you know, as we go all the way through to kind of plant five.
I think by the time you get to five or six, you should be, we should be in a position whereby, A, and look, and I always make this joke where, you know, the first time you build one of these, it's like an IKEA wardrobe, where you're left with, like, five screws and three Allen keys. You know, by the time you've built the 10th one, you don't have anything left, maybe 1 Allen key. But that's, and at that point in time, you can license it. So, the build up, the build pathway is just about resource, in terms of people and permitting, et cetera. Because I think CapEx will be very, very straightforward. And the funders that are there are huge. And then the second pathway is the licensing, which I think needs three-five .
Okay, thanks, Aidan. One other question just came in here. Just regarding the company's marketing plan and budget, maybe we could just touch on that as well.
Yeah, I mean, you know, as we've talked about marketing plans, as you know, when we were focused on funding the Calgary facility, that was very focused. And so there was very little kind of external marketing that went on. But this year, as we think about that, then we have started to discuss what the marketing budget looks like. But it's not just necessarily kind of like a digital marketing budget. It's actually like a marketing budget, whereby in the regions that we are thinking of deploying, you know, what conferences are we going to? What ESG conferences are we gonna go to down in the Baltimore region?
So we've tried to be very targeted about spending the marketing budget in terms of getting our people in front of, you know, governments, decision makers, you know, conferences that are in those regions too, because that enables us to connect. I mean, I presented, you know, a couple of times in Toronto last year and literally had, you know, ECCOnomic development people come up and say, "Here's my card. Whenever you're ready to come here, please give me a call." And so all of that to say, it's the broader marketing scope of focusing on the regions that we're going to, that's one of the things that we have targeted and funding for this year.
Thanks, Aidan. Just looking at a couple ones that have come in as well here. IKO and TAMKO production waste should be cleaner than replacement roofing waste. Would it be easier and less expensive to process?
Yes, when it comes in. So the stuff that comes from a manufacturer, absolutely. There. It's literally just the shingle tiles. There's no nails, you know, no plastic bags from new shingles, no kind of, you know. So it is absolutely. The stuff that would come from a roofer, if the roofer comes straight from a site and doesn't pre-process, then that can obviously have waste in it. We talk to roofers and IKO, for example, they pre-process the shingles, so they remove the majority of the waste. And what we really want in the Calgary facility and all our facilities is clean shingle loads coming in. Now, that doesn't. Because we have nail removal in our process, that's not a problem.
But you know, that is kind of remove the plastic, remove bits of wood, you know, all that kind of good stuff. And so we want all our sites to have essentially pre-processed waste, rather than something that just comes from a skip in the middle of the street. But that is also a bit of an education process. So what we want to do. And we price accordingly, too. So what we want to do is make sure we've got you know, the roofers working for us, as they collect as well.
Okay, thanks, Aidan. Last question, just with regards to the specialization of this equipment, what are the availability of parts, and what's the strategy if any of the equipment breaks down?
That's a good question. We've put together, I guess, a process that in a number of different cases uses equipment from other industries in the processing technology that we have. So I've always said there's no back to the future reactor in the middle of this thing that, you know, that there's one person in the world that can design it. One of the important things, of course, is the parts philosophy for the process and kind of the backup and what happens whenever a piece of equipment breaks down, which, you know, happens in operating facilities. So that is one thing we're looking at, which is what are the critical parts that would have any long lead item, sorry, long delivery time implications? The plan would be to have those either readily available or stored on site.
Okay, thanks, Aidan. That's a wrap.
Perfect. Well, thanks, everybody, for listening to the call. I mean, again, as we chatted about the financials, you know, financials are in good shape. And I think as we kind of came in to chat about, you know, the questions that we had, you know, we've got feedstock agreements in place. You know, we've hit milestones, detailed design is done. First long lead item has arrived on site. Funding is going well from both the Calgary perspective and the oversubscription of the debenture. And we've announced our first expansion after Calgary gets built. And, you know, everybody on this call can be reassured that the absolute focus for 2024 for this company is to deliver a successfully operating facility in Calgary.