The former artillery officer and current commander of the 1st Canadian Division Headquarters -- a high-readiness unit that is the first to be deployed in war zones, helps evacuate Canadians in danger and offers disaster assistance -- brings decades of military planning and instruction to the new job.

The exact start date has yet to be confirmed, but it will be sometime in the fall.

The mission, announced in Brussels last month, will focus on countering improvised explosive devices, civil-military planning, armored vehicle maintenance and military medicine.

It will include 580 NATO personnel, including 250 Canadian soldiers, as well as up to three Canadian military helicopters, for one year.

These forces will train Iraqi military instructors who in turn will share that expertise with Iraqi troops at military schools and academies to be set up by NATO -- similar to what the alliance did in Afghanistan, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a press conference in July.

"The best way to prevent NATO and NATO allies being forced back into combat operations in Iraq, fighting Daesh or any other kinds of terrorist groups, is to make sure that the Iraqi government, the Iraqi forces, are able to prevent Daesh from coming back," he said, referring to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

Fortin, 50, graduated from military college in 1991, deployed to Bosnia and Afghanistan, and worked alongside US commanders in a number of "operational exercises and contingencies" across the Asia-Pacific region.

More recently, he was executive assistant and special advisor to Canada's chief of the defense staff.

The NATO mission, which was requested by Baghdad, will complement Canada's existing efforts as part of the US-led coalition fighting IS, to which it has been contributing air power, medical support and help in training Iraqi forces since 2014.