The situation has not changed, and is not going to change, for global sea ice remains the same as ever it was. But since the world is supposedly warming, we need regular announcements that the northwest passage is opening.
Eureferendum provides a nice fisking of the latest report of the Northwest Passage opening
Over the last hundred years or so, the Northwest passage has been briefly open from time to time, for sailors willing to take their chances. Sometimes they get through, if the wind blows the ice in the right direction. Sometimes they do not. This makes it worthless for commercial cargo traffic, since if the weather goes bad, you have to turn around, and face a risk of getting stuck in the ice until next summer. So you cannot transport goods through the Northwest passage on predictable schedule, and for predictable costs. You can take a tourist trip through – provided your passengers agree not to demand a refund if the ship has to turn around, and provided you call in the icebreakers at the first sign of getting stuck.