DISCLAIMERS:
French is not my first language, so this is a bit rough. Also, I am not a lawyer, an accountant, or any other financial professional. This is not intended to be legal advice, and you are wise to get a lawyer. That said, here goes:
The Big Question
How do we get from $74 790.81 in active and passive assets to a final distribution of $33 152.59?
The Short Answer With lots of rounding, and ignoring small amounts (relative to the total),
The estate was charged just over $12 000 in fees for the the notary, the liquidator and for charges concerning succession taxes. It looks like there's no question about the liquidators fees (if the claim about them being set out in the will is right), but I have no idea if the notary fees are reasonable. If the notary had been on the case for a long time (maybe 2009-2013?), then $7 000 could be reasonable.
The estate paid ~$27 000 in federal and provincial taxes for all the years in issue (with a $5 000 refund included in the overall total). Most notable is the ~$8 000 penalty and interest payment for 2001. I assume that the return was filed quite late.
There's a car which hasn't been factored into the original bequest (I guess it was left to you guys directly), and some jewelry which isn't included in the liquid assets since it was also left directly to someone. Subtract $2 000 for the car.
$27000 tax + $12000 notary/liquidator + $2000 jewelry = $41000 $74 000 - $41 000 = $33 000 Which is about the final value
Conclusion
I've rounded pretty aggressively here, but it suffices to make my point. The main drags on the bequest are taxes and professional fees for the liquidator and notary. A lawyer might be able to help you recover something from the notary if the fees were excessive, and I would ask pointed questions about that $8 000 interest and penalty expense. Why was the return for 2001 filed super late?
tl;dr Talk to a lawyer, but don't expect a huge increase in the final payout. Taxes are the main culprit here with some notary fees that aren't completely bonkers (they don't work cheap). The tax interest and penalties are worth investigating.