Council for the Municipality of the District of St. Mary’s is staying neutral on the wilderness area status of Archibald Lake, a position that has the president of the local river association accusing them of “shirking their duty.” At last week’s committee of the whole meeting (July 7), councillors neither supported nor opposed the St. Mary’s River Association’s (SMRA’s) year-long campaign to seek provincial protection of Archibald Lake, about 10 kilometres northeast of Sherbrooke, from extractive industries like Atlantic Gold, which wants to build a water-intensive mine at nearby Cochrane Hill.