from the Universities of Saskatchewan and Western Ontario. In 1996 this committee recommended that the Canadian Light Source be built in Saskatchewan. With NSERC unable to supply the required funds it was not clear where funding would come from. In 1997 the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) was created to fund large scientific projects, possibly to provide a mechanism to fund the CLS. In 1998 a University of Saskatchewan team led by Dennis Skopik, the SAL director, submitted a proposal to CFI. The proposal was to fund 40% of the construction costs, with remaining money having to come from elsewhere. Assembling these required matching funds has been called "an unprecedented level of collaboration among governments, universities, and industry in Canada" and Bancroft – leader of the rival UWO bid – anckowledged the "Herculean" efforts of the Saskatchewan team in obtaining funds from the University, the City of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Power, NRC, the Provincial Government of Saskatchewan, and Western Economic Diversification. At a late hour CFI told the proponents that it would not accept the SAL LINAC as part of the proposal, and the resulting shortfall was met in part by the spontaneous announcement by the Saskatoon city council and then Mayor Henry Dayday that they would double their contribution as long as other partners would. On 31 March 1999 the success of the CFI proposal was announced. The following month Skopik took a position at Jefferson Lab in the USA. He decided not to stay on as director of the Saskatoon facility because his expertise was in subatomic particles, and, he argued, the head of the CLS should be a researcher who specializes in using such a facility. His successor was Mike Bancroft Construction: 1999–2004 At the start of the project, all staff members with the former SAL were transferred into a new not-for-profit corporation, Canadian Light Source Inc., CLSI, which had primary responsibility for the technical design, construction and operation of the facility. As a separate corporation from the University, CLSI had the legal and organizational freedom suitable for this responsibility. UMA, an experienced engineering firm, now part of AECOM, with extensive experience managing large technical and civil construction projects, was hired as project managers. The new building – attached to the existing SAL building, and measuring 84m by 83m in area with a maximum height of 23m – was completed in early 2001. Bancroft's appointment ended in October