You can stay outside Canada for a maximum of 1095 days in the previous 1825 days or since you became a permanent resident, which ever is the lower. There are no recent changes to periods of time outside Canada.
As a PR, you could stay outside Canada as much as you want but make sure you come back on time to maintain your PR residency obligation.
The law change was related to citizenship requirements where you must spend 3 years of the 5 years at time of application physically in Canada. One of those years can be credited if physically in Canada at half a day for each day to maximum 1 year credit, again only if within the 5 years preceeding a citizenship application.
