“The best way out of poverty is a good education,” Perry Bellegarde, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said Saturday morning in his Congress 2018 kickoff keynote address at the University of Regina.

In his talk, Education: The key to reconciliation, Bellegarde said treaties provided the exchange of land for several things – including the spirit and intent to educate.

“If that spirit had been honoured, we wouldn’t have student waiting lists or gaps in student funding in kindergarten to grade 12 schools,” he said.