QUEBEC - The Quebec government is investing $175 million to recruit new judges, prosecutors and other staff to help ease the burden on the province's overloaded justice system.

The plan is to hire nearly two dozen new judges and more than 50 prosecutors by next September as well as adding courtrooms in Montreal, Sherbrooke and Gatineau.

Justice Minister Stephanie Vallee tabled a bill outlining the government's plan Wednesday and said the dollar amount would be spread over four years.

The bill comes as the province deals with a crisis due to a Supreme Court judgment in July known as the Jordan decision, which stated that a reasonable delay for a case to reach trial from the time an accused is charged is 18 months in a provincial court or 30 months in a Superior Court.

A spokeswoman for Vallee said Tuesday that 288 accused are seeking a stay of proceedings in the province — a number that is rising.

Earlier this month, senior Quebec judges broke tradition by speaking out publicly in the media about the backlog and the need for support and funding.

Quebec's legislative session ends Friday, but both the Opposition Parti Quebecois and Coalition for Quebec's Future seemed open to helping the government.

PQ Leader Jean-Francois Lisee said his party will support the bill if the legal community is satisfied with the measures.

The Crown's office said Wednesday it welcomes the government's plan.

As part of the new measures, Quebec would add two appeals court justices, five Superior Court justices and 16 provincial court judges.

That would bring the number of appeals court justices to 22, Superior Court justices to 157 and Quebec court judges to 306.

By next fall, the director of criminal and penal prosecutions would also hire 114 employees to support prosecutors.

Vallee said she wants to accelerate the process to name 16 judges and 30 prosecutors by the end of the government's fiscal year on March 31.

Other provinces have also been taking measures to deal with similar crises.

One week ago, Ontario announced plans to hire judges, Crown attorneys, duty counsel and court staff to help improve wait times to get to trial.

The Ontario Crown Attorneys Association recently estimated about 6,000 criminal cases could be stayed or withdrawn in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2016