About Portage
Portage makes journeys possible when travelling alone has become difficult, complicated, or uncertain — door to door or bed to bed, across Canada and around the world.
Portage exists because people don't stop needing to go places when getting there becomes harder. Founded by a seasoned flight paramedic, we provide Travel Companion and Medical Escort services for people who need support on a journey: home after a hospital stay, between hospitals or care facilities, or to the family occasions that matter. We work with travellers, families, and healthcare providers.
Meet the Founder
Flight Paramedic · 20+ Years of Complex Repatriations, in Canada and Worldwide · Senior Emergency Services Leadership
Magni Magnason has spent more than twenty years as a flight paramedic. He has brought people home from hospital beds on other continents and from trips interrupted by illness or injury, planning each journey with the traveller, their family, physicians, and airlines.
Along the way, he saw how many people whose health, mobility, or memory makes travelling alone difficult simply need the right support to go: an older parent getting to a family wedding, a patient heading home after a hospital stay, someone moving closer to the family who looks after them. He founded Portage for them, because a health or mobility challenge shouldn't become a barrier to being where you need to be, or with the people you need to be with.
Every Portage journey is planned with that same clinical rigour, delivered with warmth, and built on relationships rather than transactions. His years leading EMS operations and one of Canada's busiest 9-1-1 centres shape how each one is prepared: calmly, thoroughly, and ready for the unexpected.
Our Approach
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Relationships First
We take the time to know the person we're travelling with — what makes them comfortable, what matters to them, and what the journey is for.
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A Case Coordinator and a companion
Every journey has two people on it: a Case Coordinator who plans the trip and books flights, ground transport, and airline assistance, and a Travel Companion or Medical Escort who travels with you and has one job — the traveller.
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The right caregiver, at the right level
No two journeys are alike. We assess each one at intake and recommend the level of support the traveller needs — even when that is the simpler of our two services. Every Portage Travel Companion is an experienced caregiver, trained in the complexities of care during travel and matched to the journey.
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Clinical staffing on Medical Escort journeys
Medical Escort journeys are staffed by qualified clinical professionals matched to the case, including Registered Nurses and Advanced Care Paramedics, and are planned under appropriate clinical oversight.
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Communication with family
Before departure we agree on who should hear from us and when, then keep family, the care team, and anyone else involved informed at those points, from departure to arrival.
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Privacy and Discretion
Our teams keep a discreet appearance whenever possible — no highly visible medical uniforms, no oversized equipment bags — so the traveller looks like one of two people travelling together.
portage (n) - carrying a canoe and its supplies overland between waterways, when there is no direct route forward.
Why “Portage”
The portage is a Canadian tradition. When a canoe journey meets something it can't go through, the canoe and everything in it is carried around, and the trip goes on. We do the same. When a journey gets hard, we find the way around it, and we carry the planning and the care so the traveller doesn't have to.
No two journeys are exactly alike.
Some travellers simply need an experienced companion. Others require clinical care from a registered nurse or advanced care paramedic. We assess every situation individually and recommend the level of support that best fits the traveller's needs.
If you're not sure which service is appropriate, we're happy to talk through the situation and help you determine the best approach.