Between 1926 and 1928, B.C. Electric constructed a second dam in the Maple Ridge area, to add to the Stave Lake dam located in Ruskin (completed in 1912).

The Alouette dam increased the size of Alouette Lake, to make it a reservoir for supplying a power station. The power station, however, was not located on Alouette Lake, but at Stave Lake. The company drilled a tunnel between Alouette Lake and Stave Lake (approximately 9 miles) that transported water between the lakes, passing through turbines at a power plant located on Stave Lake. The water from Alouette Lake, then, could be used twice for producing hydro-electric power once when it passed through the generating station at the end of the tunnel, and again when it passed through the generating station at the Stave Lake dam.