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A Quebec judge has approved the new terms of a $450-million settlement fund for victims and creditors of the Lac-Mégantic train disaster, prompting a lawyer in the case to say cheques should begin arriving in the mail by Christmas.

Patrice Benoit, lawyer for Montreal Maine and Atlantic Railroad (MMA), the now-defunct railway company at the centre of the 2013 disaster, said a few administrative issues remain but that “everything is settled.”

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The roughly 25 companies that have agreed to contribute to the $450 million will begin releasing the money within three weeks, Benoit said.

Victims and creditors will likely get their part of the money in two instalments, he added, with the first coming in time for Christmas.

The MMA-owned train, which was carrying crude oil from the United States, derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic on July 6, 2013, killing 47 people and destroying a large part of the town’s core.