An advance team of Canadian military personnel will leave for Haiti on Sunday to set up a base of operations for the larger contingent of troops which is expected to follow within days.

"It's a very small team," military spokesman Capt. Darren Steele said Saturday of the group headed for the wartorn Caribbean country.

Steele wouldn't give an exact number of personnel leaving.

"These are the folks that need to get down, see the ground and decide where things have to go and what equipment they need to bring."

The group will be comprised of some members from Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick and others from CFB Kingston in Ontario.

The "theatre activation team" is not counted among the approximately 450 troops Defence Minister David Pratt committed to a 90-day mission Friday.

Steele said the military plans to have those soldiers on their way to Haiti within the next week.

There's no indication of how long the set-up force will remain in Haiti, as it depends on the surroundings and facilities they find on arrival, said Steele.

"They go in, they do what their job is, and then they come home," Steele said.

That job includes setting up camp in much the same way as was done prior to the Afghanistan mission, Steele said.

As part of an international force, Steele said, the Canadian contingent "will be dealing directly with their counterparts from the U.S. and from France and whatever nations are down there."

With Friday's commitment of troops to a three-month mission, Canada is now the third largest troop-contributing nation to the multinational mission.

The force will include members of the 2nd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment based in Gagetown. In addition, members of the Joint Operations Group based in Kingston, and six Griffon helicopters from 430 Squadron based in Valcartier, Que., will also be deployed.

They are scheduled to serve for three months in the troubled region, but Prime Minister Paul Martin said Friday a lengthier peacekeeping and humanitarian mission will likely follow.

"The international community left Haiti prematurely the last time and we saw what happened," said Martin, referring to the most recent effort to restore order to Haiti in the mid-1990s.

"The international community must not make that mistake again, and Canada is going to stay there to ensure that does not happen."

The cost of the Canadian military's 90-day mission to Haiti is expected reach about $38 million, the defence minister has said.