Canada's PM Harper speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa
Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa June 18, 2014. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

Canada's New Democrats, one of the country's opposition parties, has vowed to rework back into the system a federal minimum wage scrapped 18 years ago. NDP leader Thomas Mulcair said they will push a $15 an hour federal minimum wage when Parliament resumes on Tuesday.

If passed and enacted, one million workers in federally regulated jurisdictions including transportation, financial services, telecommunications and broadcasting, as well as other federal agencies would get to enjoy it.

Mulcair said bringing back and setting anew a federal minimum wage would help government workers make ends meet, at the same time help build a fairer and healthier economy overall.

Canada used to have a federal minimum wage system in place, but this was scrapped in 1996 by then-Liberal government, led by Jean Chrétien.

But Mulcair said the system had to be brought back because Canadian "families are having more and more trouble getting by."

Just last week, an annual survey by the Canadian Payroll Association that workers are now just living from paycheque to paycheque in Canada, so much so that a week's delay in its issuance will surely create havoc in the worker's financial capacities and responsibilities.

Read: Canadian Workers to Retire Later than Usual As More and More Live Paycheque to Paycheque

"It is unacceptable in a country as rich as Canada that people can work full time and still live in poverty," Mulcair said. "It was a cynical move to begin with by the Liberals because instead of raising the bar, they lowered it."

On Tuesday, the NDP will propose to start the federal minimum wage at $12-an-hour, then gradually increase it to $15 by 2019.

Provincial minimum wage rates for all non-federal jobs, however, would continue to apply in the private sector as well as government regulated areas.

Canada's provincial minimum wage rates differ. The highest minimum wage is in Nunavut and Ontario at $11 an hour, while the lowest $10 an hour can be found in New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Labrador and the Northwest Territories.

The NDP has the second highest number of seats in the House of Commons, far exceeding the Liberals, Reuters reported.