The province is putting together a case for higher immigration quotas under the Provincial Nominee Program.

Under the program ‘ a joint federal and provincial initiative designed at addressing labour market needs by attracting skilled foreign workers ‘ Nova Scotia is eligible for up to 500 nominees per year.

Office of Immigration Executive Director Elizabeth Mills said the government intends to argue for a higher cap when the provincial and territorial ministers meet with their federal counterpart, Jason Kenney, this spring.

“All of the provinces and territories … (are) accumulating their evidence to demonstrate our need for more immigrants to our respective provinces and territories,” she said.

According to Mills, the objective is to raise or remove Nova Scotia’s PNP quota in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

The program accounted for 42.5 per cent of landed immigrants in Nova Scotia between 2005 and 2009. The program was second only to the Federal Skilled Workers initiative in terms of attracting immigrants to the province.

A federal evaluation of the program released last week revealed that only 56 per cent of program applicants landing in Atlantic Canada between 2000 and 2008 stayed in the region. Nova Scotia has a slightly better retention rate ‘ 68 per cent ‘ but still lagged behind the national average of 82 per cent.

The report did not recommend changing the provincial and territorial quotas.

That disappointed Progressive Conservative Leader and immigration critic Jamie Baillie.

“The fact of the matter is we don’t need minor tweaking to our immigration plans, we need big and bold if we’re going to be bringing in the number of immigrants we need to fuel tomorrow’s economy,” Baillie said.

The provincial government expects Nova Scotia’s labour force to shrink by 47,000 people in the next 10 years.