OTTAWA _ Declaring it time for ``historic change,'' Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has appointed a five-member panel to oversee reform of the embattled RCMP.

The group, led by former Alcan executive David McAusland, will ensure the Mounties follow and implement key recommendations of a recent task force report that called for more autonomy for the RCMP.

The panel also includes a former RCMP commissioner, a justice professor, and a specialist in corporate governance.

Day says the arm's-length panel will make sure the necessary changes are implemented with ``independence and transparency.''

It will also ensure a co-ordinated approach to reforms.

``Now we're able to begin, really start to get to the business of rolling up the sleeves and showing that everybody's working together.''

The task force report recommended a stand-alone RCMP with supervised control over hiring and spending decisions.

The report proposed a sweeping package of changes to the structure and oversight of the beleaguered national police force.

The report said the Mounties were mired in bureaucracy and must have more authority to manage their own staff and finances.

McAusland, a lawyer, executive and corporate director, said he wants to see a better-run police force.

``My experience is that regardless of the type of organization you're dealing with . . . excellence in management and excellence in leadership is driven by organizational excellence,'' he said.

The other panel members:

_ Jean-Claude Bouchard, a career civil servant who most recently was president of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

_ Beverley Busson, a veteran Mountie who briefly served as commissioner of the force from December 2006 to July 2007.

_ Jocelyne Cote-O'Hara, president of The Cora Group, a Toronto-based management consulting firm.

_ Kevin McAlpine, former chief of police in Ontario's Durham region, now a professor at the school of justice at Durham College.

The group is to submit its first report to Day by September.

The Mounties welcomed the creation of the panel.

William Elliott, the civilian appointed as RCMP commissioner last summer, said the force is committed to change.

``I have made it abundantly clear that the status quo is not an option,'' he said.