Alberta Urban Municipalities Association president Linda Sloan is standing by comments she made in the media about how the provincial Progressive Conservative government gives grants to cities and towns based on their voting records.

"What we have said, what I have said, what previous presidents of AUMA have said, publicly and to members of government, is that the grant system has been subject to reduction, to change and to partisan influence and that is why we've had a problem with it," Sloan said after an AUMA breakfast on Thursday.

"That's why it needs fixing."

Sloan, an Edmonton city councillor and former Liberal MLA, created a political firestorm this week when she made similar comments in an Edmonton Sun story.

The remarks angered Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths, who subsequently called on Tory MLAs to boycott Thursday's breakfast.

Griffiths later reversed his stance and attended the event, even standing next to Sloan while answering questions from reporters. But he claims he's yet to see an example of partisanship playing a role in the allocation of municipal grants.

"I mean people often feel like they're getting treated unfairly if they don't get the same as everybody else," Griffiths said.

"That just bogs us down in the us-versus-them and I said today, this is not us-versus-them. We're all Albertans trying to build better communities and it's not about who's going to get more and how."

The controversy over the war of words between Sloan and Griffiths even reached the premier's office.

Premier Alison Redford ordered her chief of staff Stephen Carter to apologize for a posting he made on Twitter Tuesday, where he accused Sloan of lying "maliciously."