I am afraid not much if anything has changed. Personally I was hoping that CI would become a ST member by this year, seems that still is not the case.
So, as far as I am concernd, it is waiting and waiting until one day my miles hae disappeared. As a sidepoint I don't find CI that cheap or inexpensive an airline as they used to be, so a trip just to keep the miles alive is at this point out of the question.