Residents of Ste-Marthe-Sur-Le-Lac who were forced from their homes by spring floods voiced their frustrations with a lack of movement on compensation on Wednesday.

Several residents made their way to the National Assembly in Quebec City where they met with Public Security Minister Genevieve Guilbault.

Roughly 6,000 people were forced to quickly leave their homes when a dike burst in late April, filling streets and homes with water.

Mickaella Hardy, a 14-year-old girl who made the trip with her family, said the situation has been “really stressful.”

“It just haunts us, it follows us everywhere,” she said. “There’s no escape from it because it’s our home.”

“We just feel completely betrayed. We’re suffering the consequences of something we weren’t even aware of.”

Liberal MNA and Critic for Public Security Christine St-Pierre said people who lived in Ste-Marthe-sur-le-Lac had no idea what they were getting into.

“When they bought their houses, it was written ‘you are not in a flood zone,’” she said. “They decided to buy this house with the information they had in front of them.”

While the Legault government has offered to pay owners of homes in flood zones up to $200,000 for their property, St-Pierre said the community should be considered an exceptional situation and residents should be eligible for higher levels of compensation.

“Their situation is very peculiar,” she said. “The value of their houses is not the value that the government decided to give. $200,000 is not enough. They have mortgages and most of them want to leave Ste-Marthe-sur-le-Lac and if they decide to leave and buy another house in another place, the value is higher.”

Quebec Premier Francois Legault defended the government’s compensation program, saying “regarding compensation we’re giving them, I think we have a generous program.”

But following the meeting with Guilbault, St-Pierre said the government seems open to boosting compensation.

“She didn’t make any commitment, but she made a commitment to look at the situation, so this is a good step,” she said.

Legault promised to speed up the compensation process for those whose homes were damaged.

“We’ll act as fast as possible,” he said. “I don’t like bureaucracy, I don’t like long delays, so I’ll make sure that we act fast.”