Meet Andrea
Andrea Kaiser has over thirty years of experience in business and community leadership roles. She is a graduate of the University of Guelph with a BA in History and Politics and built her career in the local business community. She taught courses in business, marketing, and communication at the Canadian Food and Wine Institute for over a decade and is now a recognized expert and educator in the field of wine and sustainability. She is also the Proprietor of Drea’s Wine Co., producing single-vineyard VQA wines that are recognized and exported around the world. She was inspired to create her own premium wine collection by her father, Karl J. Kaiser, who co-founded Inniskillin Wines in 1976.
Andrea also brings nearly fifteen years of local political experience, first serving as a Municipal Councillor for the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake from 2003 to 2014. In this role, she established a reputation as a strong, effective, and collaborative leader. During her service, she chaired several standing committees of Council, including Public Works, Planning, Corporate Services, and Fair Taxation.
She currently serves as Regional Councillor for the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake and is a member of the Community Services (formerly Public Health and Social Services) Committee and Vice-Chair of the Economic Development Committee. Upon election, she pledged to improve communication and deliver tangible results for residents.
Since being elected in this role she has delivered:
Regular presentations to Niagara-on-the-Lake Council with updates from the region to keep Municipal Councillors and residents informed. Bi-monthly meetings with the Director of Transportation at the Region and the Lord Mayor of Niagara-on-the-Lake to review and action safety initiatives and remediation on regional roads such as Niagara Stone Road, Lakeshore Road, Creek Road, and York Road including pedestrian safety at St.David’s Public School.
Andrea initiated meetings on the long-stalled reopening of Niagara Shores Park and identification of the need to secure federal funding for the cleanup of the sewage lagoons adjacent to the park. This resulted in a new agreement between Niagara Parks, Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority and the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake to reopen the park as well as a new federal funding plan to assist the Niagara Region with cleanup costs.
Andrea also secured a community workshop to review the roundabout in St. Davids, addressing concerns about the safety of pedestrians, the accommodation of agricultural equipment, and looking to develop a design that enhances the community landscape while honouring its heritage.
After being elected, Andrea identified that uncapped regional discretionary incentive development grants were not sustainable and worked to sunset uncapped grants in favour of capped programs that specifically foster attainable and affordable housing.
Most recently, she took on long-standing inequities in policing costs, where bigger communities are not paying their fair share, successfully advancing a motion at Regional Council to review and potentially reform how those costs are allocated - an issue that had gone unresolved for decades. A report is now forthcoming to Council.
Deep Roots in Niagara
Andrea grew up in Niagara with her two siblings in a small bungalow down the road from her father’s winery. Her father Karl J. Kaiser was a winemaker and co-founder of Inniskillin Wines and credited with the birth of modern Canadian winemaking. Andrea's first job was at the winery as a tour guide welcoming tourists from around the world and educating them about grape growing in Canada and the production of world-famous Icewine.
Andrea is extremely passionate about the three pillars of sustainability; economic prosperity, environmental protection and social inclusion and served as Chairperson of Ontario Craft Wineries Sustainable Winemaking Certification Program for the past six years. She has also served on numerous boards and committees such the Niagara Nursery School, Ontario Craft Winery, Wineries of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Niagara-on-the-Lake Chamber of Commerce, Municipal Heritage Committee and the Library board.
