The Museum Association is raising some serious questions about the capital city’s plans to shut down the Railway Coastal Museum without public consultation.

MANL calls the museum “an award-winning anchor attraction” for the City of St. John’s and the province as a whole.

The association says the closure is raising many questions, including those surrounding the status of the museum’s governing board and whether it has been meeting.

MANL also wants to know when the city took ownership of the museum, its collections and the building and what rationale was behind the closure.

The association says cultural institutions and tourism infrastructure must be protected especially as municipalities embrace their culture and heritage and develop them into tourist products.