Thank you, National Chief and members.
I'm pleased to be here and accompanying the national chief in his appearance on this critical issue. For us, at least through the Assembly of First Nations, it's been almost a year since we began focusing on this co-development exercise, which is defined by a certain set of principles that were adopted by all the parties last June.
It is a work in progress, there's no doubt about it, because this is generally something that doesn't happen regularly. There are also the rules around confidentiality, the parliamentary privilege right, and the reality that parliamentarians are the ones who normally see the first version of draft legislation, aside from the executive. We grapple with those kinds of issues. We'll figure them out as we get to that bridge.
What we've done to this point is that, based on the work that the Assembly of First Nations did in going out and engaging with our people to receive direction and instruction on what people expect should be in the legislation, we have moved that forward in the form of principles that we have worked out together with the Métis representation on our working group, with the Inuit representation, and with Canada's representation. We have four parties in this working group process. We're being methodical about how to move this all forward in order to really capture a consensus, as much as possible, among all parties.
We're at a point where we have agreed on a set of principles that should guide the preparation of the legislation. We need to transform those at some point into something that begins to take shape as legislative content. Ultimately, there will be a stage where there's drafting. We don't anticipate that it's going to happen for maybe three to four months. What we have discussed by way of the working group is that we have to facilitate a way in which the non-governmental parties—the Assembly of First Nations, the Métis, and the Inuit—can actually be included together with the federal government's drafting people, who normally come out of the Department of Justice.
We will obviously need, or the government will need, authorization from the executive in order to facilitate that process. In anticipation of doing that, we are trying to figure out what is the best way to be able to actually achieve really that co-drafting. One thing that I think we will also have worked on prior to that actual drafting exercise is that normally the drafting exercise is informed by drafting instructions, as we know. That will also have a role in setting out for the executive's consideration an approval to move that process forward.
I hope that answers your question.