Steeped in a rich military heritage and tradition, messes have been used by the Canadian Forces (CF) throughout Canada's history to foster morale and promote military values including camaraderie and unit cohesiveness. Messes give members a strong sense of commitment to the ideas, objectives and the basic responsibility expected of them within the CF and set the standard for military service within Canada.

To this day, CF messes retain a functional role as social and dining clubs, and are the centre of social life for units, stations bases and ships. They enhance the esprit de corps of units, lighten the load of demanding day-to-day work, give commanders an opportunity to meet socially with their troops, and enable CF members of all ranks to create bonds of friendship and better working relations through an atmosphere of good fellowship.

The CF maintains five categories of messes: the Officers Mess; Warrant Officers and Sergeants' Mess or Chief and Petty Officers Mess; the Junior Ranks Club; the Officer Cadet Mess; and, in some locations, Combined Messes. In Maritime Command, the Officers Mess is called the Wardroom. In some smaller CF Units the officers and senior non-commissioned officers share the same mess.

The CFPSA provides support to all CF messes. Specifically, PSP Hospitality Services provides expertise on operational and management practices and assists mess managers in providing quality mess hospitality services.

CFPSA's Hospitality Services team use staff assistance visits (SAV) to review mess operational, administrative and financial framework. A client services team including CFPSA's Internal Audit and Review staff is also available to provide comprehensive review and assessment of mess operations.

Contact the Hospitality Services Team for more information. (click here)