Winnipeg-Some Manitoba people received false e-mails telling them that their vaccination appointments had been cancelled.

Peter Carlyle-Gordge spent an hour and a half on Friday trying to make an appointment for his second dose of COVID-19 vaccine. After trying to make a reservation over the phone, he gave up and managed to make a reservation online.

Carlisle Gold said: “That’s good, I’m very happy to do this. So you arranged to be free and get there.”

On Saturday, Carlyle-Gordge received an email from the province telling him that he was not eligible and that if he did not call to resolve the issue, his appointment would be cancelled.

After dialing the phone number provided, he learned that his appointment was still valid, which was just a mistake.

Carlyle-Gordge said: “I wasted another hour trying to get through. The lady I spoke to apologized and suggested that I am not the first to receive one of these fake emails.”

In a similar story, Mitzi Borodenko ordered a second dose on Friday.

Borodeko said: “I called first, and they said there were a lot of backlogs, so I jumped on the computer and quickly booked online.

On Saturday, she said she received an email from the province saying that her appointment would be cancelled.

After dialing the number in the email, Borodenko was told that her appointment was still valid, which was a glitch in the system.

A provincial spokesperson said in a statement to CTV News: “The message was sent in error and people who received the message are following up (if not already) to clarify.”

The spokesperson did not say what caused the email or how many emails were sent.

Carlyle-Gordge said that he did receive follow-up emails, but only after wasting more time.

He said that he would like to see the province solve this problem.

Carlyle Gold said: “If this is sabotage, it will be very serious and criminal charges must be filed. If this is just incompetence, then someone needs to be unemployed.”

Borodenko said that she also received follow-up e-mails from the province, but she believed that this would not happen in the first place.

She said: “It will only make you more frustrated and question how much government departments know about what is happening.” “It makes them look messy. It seems that they are passive, and I want them to take the initiative.”