On October 28, 2020, Canada's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr Theresa Tam, stated that the pandemic was exposing existing inequalities in Canada. In a television address, she said that:

While this may have been a revelation for some people, for the contributors to this volume, and the others in this series, such a direct and unequivocal statement was not surprising.

Such insights are also nothing new to those with lived experiences of these inequalities and injustices. Throughout the four volumes, one of our aims has been to include chapters that amplify these voices by meaningfully, respectfully, and ethically engaging with marginalized communities in order to center their experiences within planning, policy, and political debates about the impact of the pandemic and, importantly, how to respond to it. The findings, analysis, and reflection found throughout this series of books must be a reminder to planners and policy makers that the divisions, inequities, and injustices rendered visible during the COVID-19 pandemic long predate the virus. As a result, any meaningful policies to address them must primarily focus on the structural forces that produce unequal cities and societies.

The chapters in this volume prompt us to ask two important questions. First, does the pandemic require us to think of new ideas or solutions? Or phrased another way, can the challenges of the pandemic be addressed by implementing policies that scholars, advocates, and practitioners have been calling for for many years? Is it a question of new ideas, or changing priorities? Related to this, the second question we must ask is this: what social, economic, planning, and political factors need to change in order to build more equitable cities?