Peace Support Training Centre (PSTC)

The Peace Support Training Centre (PSTC) is a Joint, Inter-agency, and Multinational training establishment located in Kingston, Ontario.

PSTC supports the intellectual development and training of Canadian Forces, members from other government departments, and international audiences. PSTC’s activities fall into two overall lines of operation: delivering training and fulfilling centre of excellence responsibilities.

With a training audience varying from civil-military cooperation and psychological operations operators to individual augmentees to headquarters and military observer teams, PSTC is fully oriented toward training for operational deployments.

As part of its efforts to keep pace with the contemporary operating environment, PSTC remains connected to deployed personnel in theatre and organizations capturing lesson learned. PSTC also maintains active relationships with other international training establishments in the fields of Peace Support Operations, Civil-Military Cooperation, Information Operations, and Psychological Operations. By maintaining currency and relevance, PSTC maintains a sound intellectual base and deliver the best possible training.

PSTC is also engaged in the development of capacity building training, such as security force assistance and provincial reconstruction teams. These are designed to strengthen the military contribution to a comprehensive approach that sees a whole of government team protecting national interests.

Overall, PSTC’s training responsibilities are increasingly seen as a set of interrelated and mutually-supporting disciplines. PSTC is contributing to a system of force generation that produces soldiers and leaders ready to conduct campaign-winning activities as part of Canada’s tactical engagement in full spectrum operations in support of strategic goals.

PSTC will provide specific, individual training to prepare selected members of the Canadian Forces, Other Government Departments (OGD) and foreign military personnel for Full-Spectrum Operations (FSO) within the contemporary operating environment, while fulfilling our Centre of Excellence (CoE) responsibilities.

As a lead Joint, Inter-Agency, Multinational training centre, PSTC’s vision is to be recognized by all Canadian Government Departments as the trainer of choice and experts in the delivery of individual readiness training and campaign-winning enablers to include: Individual Pre-Deployment Training (IPT), Hazardous Environment Training (HET), Military Observer (MilOb), Information Operations (IO), Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) and Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) Courses.

The Peace Support Training Centre stood-up in July 1996 and was formally established as a unit in December 2000. The original role of PSTC was to deliver pre-deployment training for CF personnel and others selected for Peace Support Operations and to provide Peace Support Operations training assistance to Canadian and foreign organizations.

In 2004, PSTC was assigned the Centre of Excellence and Individual training responsibilities for the Influence Activities to include:

Information Operations; Psychological Operations; and, Civil-Military Cooperation.

Today, the Peace Support Training Centre provides specific, individual training to prepare selected members of the Canadian Forces, Other Government Departments and foreign military personnel for Full-Spectrum Operations, while executing our Centre of Excellence (CoE) responsibilities.

Our principal tasks are broken into two lines of operation:

1. Delivery of Individual Training; and
2. Centre of Excellence responsibilities.

The majority of personnel who receive training at PSTC are Canadian Forces personnel preparing to deploy on operations. However, as the Canadian Forces’ presence in Afghanistan winds down we expect a greater percentage of our students will be civilians from Other Government Departments and foreign militaries.

With a staff of over 60 personnel, the PSTC has come a long way from its humble beginnings. It's annual throughput of students is approximately 1,000 people and it continues to develop its capabilities to prepare personnel for any operation in the future.