Lake Megantic Quebec - Loved ones of people killed in Canada's deadliest railway explosion won't likely receive compensation unless someone is criminally charged, QMI Agency has learned.
 
Forty-seven people were killed last July when a runaway crude-oil train derailed and exploded in the Quebec border town of Lake Megantic.
 
Families have complained to QMI that they haven't received cheques from IVAC, Quebec's victims of crime program.
 
"For now, what we're waiting for is to see whether charges will be brought because, obviously, we require proof of a criminal act," said Dominique Blais, legal counsel for IVAC.
 
"We're almost there," Blais added.
 
"I cannot tell you that in the coming days there won't be a decision. But as of this (Monday) morning, I can't answer you."
 
QMI reported on Saturday that police are confident prosecutors will lay criminal negligence charges against at least three people, including the train's engineer, and the CEO of Montreal Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA).
 
IVAC says if even if charges are laid, not everyone who knew a victim will get money.
 
Richard Turcotte, who lost his teenage daughter Elodie in the blast, tells QMI that families are being forgotten amid the rebuilding effort.
 
"Everyone has been compensated for material things," he said.
 
"Businesses have received assistance. But we, the families, we need to heal our wounds. It's fine to rebuild, but our heads and our hearts also have to be rebuilt."
 
Every day on their way to work, Turcotte and his wife drive past the rubble of the bar where his daughter was waiting tables the night she died.
 
"How do you want us to grieve?" he asked.
 
"It's in our face every day. We're all living the same thing in Lake Megantic. We're all messed up."
 
Brian Daly.